Compulsory voting
Australia enforces compulsory voting.[2] Compulsory voting at referendums was considered when a referendum was proposed in 1915, but, as the referendum was never held, the idea was put on hold.[3] The immediate impetus for compulsory voting at federal level was the low voter turnout (59.38 percent)[3] at the 1922 federal election. However, it was not on the platform of either the Stanley Bruce-led Nationalist/Country party coalition government or the Matthew Charlton-led Labor opposition to introduce this requirement; rather, the initiative was taken by a backbench Tasmanian senator from the Nationalists, Herbert Payne, who introduced a Private Senator's Bill, the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1924, on 16 July 1924. Senator Payne's bill was passed with little debate (the House of Representatives agreed to it in less than an hour), and in neither house was a division required, hence no votes were recorded against the bill.[4] It received Royal Assent on 31 July 1924.[5] The 1925 federal election was the first to be held under compulsory voting; the turnout figure climbed to 91.4 per cent, an increase of 32 percentage points on the previous election.
Voting is compulsory both at federal elections and at elections for the state and territory legislatures. In the states of South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia voting at local elections is not compulsory.[6] About 5% of enrolled voters fail to vote at most elections. People in this situation are asked to explain their failure to vote. If no satisfactory reason is provided (for example, illness or religious prohibition), a relatively small fine is imposed ($20),[7] and failure to pay the fine may result in a court hearing.
A citizen can only vote once enrolled. Enrolling to vote is mandatory. Failure to enrol can incur a fine.[8] However, citizens who later enrol themselves are protected from prosecution for not enrolling in the previous years by section 101(7) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.[9] In NSW, this situation has been somewhat modified by the NSW Electoral Commissions "Smart Roll" system. Introduced in 2009 the system draws information from various government department sources and enrolls eligible electors automatically onto the state roll, but not the federal role.[10]
It is an offence to "mislead an elector in relation to the casting of his vote". The number of informal votes is recorded, but they are not counted as part of the total number of votes cast. Around 95% of registered voters attend polling, and around 5% of Representatives votes are informal [11]
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