Statement – Disability Voices Tasmania, 4 May 2024

Voter Rights

For many months, Blind Citizens Australia, Disability Voices Tasmania and other organisations have been advocating to the Tasmanian Electoral Commission (TEC) about the need for significant improvements to the voting mechanisms available to Tasmanians with disability and print impairments.
During recent elections, people with disability have experienced failures of technology, lack of independent physical access and limited expertise in polling booth staff. These experiences compound the already existing limits on accessibility within the relevant electoral laws.
One easy fix would have been to extend the availability of telephone voting to people with disability in Tasmania. But the TEC has refused to authorise this.
This means that, for example:
  • If a blind elector lives in Campbell Town, in the Division of Prosser, they must travel up to three hours each way to Sorrell to access one of only three Vision Impaired (VI) Voting terminals in Tasmania. There are 25 booths in the Prosser Division, and only one with VI Voting.
  • If several blind voters attend the polling booth at Hobart City Hall to use the VI Voting terminal there, they must each wait in turn for the person before them to vast their vote, whereas another group of voters can each vote simultaneously.
  • Electors with vision impairments in the Elwick Divisions cannot simply go to any one of the ten polling booths in their local area to vote, they must travel to the one booth in the Division that has a VI Voting terminal at Moonah Community Centre.
  • Electors with vision impairments in the Hobart Division cannot simply go to any one of the 13 polling booths in their local area to vote, they must travel to the one booth in the Division that has a VI Voting terminal at Hobart City Hall.