Compulsory voting

Clive Stott

IF David Bartlett is the democratist he claims himself to be, he will be aware the Local Government compulsory postal voting model put forward by West Tamar Council is not in the best interest of Tasmanian democracy.

With postal voting, when a person votes the papers go into the mail and out of site for up to two weeks and they even have your name attached. What happens to them then is anybody’s business and after discussing this with the Electoral office they naturally cannot give me any assurance that the votes are totally secure; only that they are as secure as can be? There is a big difference.

This is in contrast to attendance voting, where people roll up on a specified day, cast their secret vote and it goes into a locked ballot box on view for everyone to see until it is opened at the close of the day and even counted in front of scrutineers if candidates wish.

It is interesting to note that West Tamar Council have proposed the postal model when many of it’s ratepayers still have niggling thoughts over results of previous elector polls conducted in that municipality using the postal ballot system; where their votes were sent off and the ‘secret result’ announced did not match people’s expectations, even closely.

To prevent this occurring, Premier Bartlett democratist must reject postal voting and go for attendance voting. I am sure people would embrace compulsory voting if they knew their secret vote would be secure and count, and did not have their name attached.

Clive Stott

Grindelwald