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REGISTER TO VOTE 4-Jul-2007 At 9:30:05 PM AlanD

Message

On 4/07/2007 BigMike wrote:
>On 3/07/2007 AlanD wrote:
>>The changes to the electorial role happened several years ago, I think
>>it was in well before the last Federal election.
>
>In fact, the new electoral laws were pushed through in December 2005,
>along with the disclosure threshold for donations to political parties
>being raised from $1500 to $10,000.
>
>So this will be the first election under the new ``close voter registration
>the day the election date is announced'' laws.
>
>>It's hard to claim that the government is trying to prevent people from
>>voting,
>
>As I said earlier, this will most affect young people (who don't tend
>to vote conservative) and people who rent (and who are less likely fall
>for a certain political line about ``keeping interest rates low for families'').

I stand corrected. It must have been being discussed on the lead up to the 2004 election.

From the AEC site

>Close of rolls
>When an election is announced, there are seven days from the issue of the writs for >people to ensure that they are correctly enrolled before the electoral roll is closed.

>During the 2004 federal election, a large number of Australians used the close of >rolls week either to enrol for the first time or to check their enrolment details and if >necessary to update these details. The AEC replied to almost 10,000 email enquiries >during this period.

>The AEC received a total of 423,975 enrolment cards in the week between the >announcement of the 2004 election and the close of rolls date. Of the enrolment >cards received in the last week, 78,816 were new enrolments.

>There were 13,021,230 people enrolled to vote at the close of rolls for the 2004 >federal election at 8pm, Tuesday 7 September. This figure included 17 year olds who >would turn 18 by 9 October 2004 and would therefore be entitled to vote. This close >of rolls figure compares with 12,636,631 electors who were enrolled at the close of >rolls for the 2001 federal election.

As for who it effects, it's affects those who ignore the current media campaign, it's not as though the government is making a secret about the need to enrol before the election is called. Further, I can understand why the AEC wants the rolls closed at the call of the election, 400 000 new or changed enrolments received in the 7 days after the call of the election and they need to process this number in under 5 weeks.