Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

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COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL ACT 1918 - SECT 268A

Formal votes below the line

  (1)   A ballot paper in a Senate election is not informal under paragraph   268(1)(b) if:

  (a)   the voter has marked the ballot paper in accordance with paragraph   239(1)(b); or

  (b)   if there are more than 6 squares printed on the ballot paper below the line--the voter has consecutively numbered any of those squares from 1 to 6 (whether or not the voter has also included one or more higher numbers in those squares).

  (2)   For the purposes of this Act:

  (a)   a voter who, in a square printed on the ballot paper below the line, marks only a single tick or cross is taken as having written the number 1 in the square; and

  (b)   the following numbers written in a square printed on the ballot paper below the line are to be disregarded:

  (i)   numbers that are repeated and any higher numbers;

  (ii)   if a number is missed--any numbers that are higher than the missing number.

Note:   Paragraph   (2)(b) applies both for the purposes of determining whether a ballot paper is formal, and for the purposes of determining which numbers marked on a ballot paper are counted in the election.

Example:   A ballot paper has squares below the line that are numbered 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The vote is informal because, by disregarding the numbers 3 and upwards under subparagraph   (2)(b)(i), only 2 squares have been numbered.

  A second ballot paper has squares below the line that are numbered consecutively from 1 to 9 and then 11, 12, 13 and 14. The vote is formal under paragraph   (1)(b). However, only the squares numbered from 1 to 9 are counted for the purposes of sections   273 and 273A because the numbers 11 and upwards are disregarded under subparagraph   (b)(ii) of this subsection.



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