What happens if....

[Lollie86]

someone is overseas and wont be back in time to vote?

Does anyone know?

[forbetoel]

I could be wrong, but I think there is a cut off date, which may even be after the election, for all Aussie citizens living or working overseas to have their votes in by. Not sure though.

[KarniF00l]

Taken from the Australian Electoral Commission website :


How do I vote while I am travelling?

If you are living overseas and currently on the Commonwealth electoral roll, you are eligible to vote in Australian federal elections. As arrangements for State and local Government elections can be different from federal elections, you will need to contact your State/Territory electoral office for more details. You can cast your vote for federal elections by either voting in person at an overseas polling place (ie. an Australian Diplomatic Mission) or by applying for a postal vote. You cannot vote electronically.

The list of overseas polling places will be available from this site upon the announcement of an election.

Postal vote applications (PVA) are also available from the AEC web site once an election has been announced. The PVA must be printed off from the web site, completed and then either faxed or posted to your nearest overseas polling place. Your ballot papers will then be sent to you.

The AEC will also have special pre-poll centres set up at some airports around Australia prior to polling day so that you may vote before you leave the country. Details of these centres will be available from this site once an election has been announced.

[ShadyCharacter]

If you don't vote at all, its a $35 fine (actually, thats for the State election, not sure if Federal is the same). I was going to do an Absentee vote last time, but decided it wasn't worth the bother and that I would just prefer to pay the fine.

Though if you don't pay it, it gets sent to SPER and ends up being closer to $140 :o

[KarniF00l]

Speaking from experience Shady ;)



Quoting again from the AEC (http://www.aec.gov.au/) website

What happens if I do not vote?

Initially the Australian Electoral Commission will write to all apparent non-voters requesting that they either provide a reason for their failure to vote or pay a $20 penalty.

If, within 21 days, the apparent non-voter fails to reply, cannot provide a valid and sufficient reason or declines to pay the penalty, then prosecution proceedings may be instigated. If the matter is dealt with in court and the person is found guilty, he or she may be fined up to $50 plus court costs.

ETA: I know a few people who refuse to vote and not pay the fine, never went to court apparently. Hmmm!

[ShadyCharacter]

Well I never got an option to say why I didn't vote (I was overseas and planned to plead ignorance on an absentee vote) :confused:

And yep, they sent me one fine for $35, I never got round to paying it (no other reason than slackness) and the next thing I know SPER are chasing me and threatening to cancel my license... I paid up then!