Failure to Vote

Electors who did not vote for the Daylight Saving Referendum held on 16 May 2009, and have not already contacted the Commission with a valid reason, have now been sent an Apparent Failure To Vote Notice. On 17 July 2009, over 133,000 of these notices were sent to these electors at their enrolled address.

On receipt of this notice electors are encouraged to respond in one of three ways. If they did vote provide details of where and when, if they didn't vote (and believe that have a valid reason) provide the details or thirdly pay the fine indicated on the notice.

The facility to pay at Australia Post Offices is no longer available, however the other three payment options are available

More Information

Section 156 of the Electoral Act clearly establishes that it is every elector's duty to vote at any election for the region or district for which he or she is enrolled.

The Electoral Commissioner must follow-up all non voters (enrolled electors that failed to vote), assess their reason for failure to vote and decide whether or not the reason is valid.

If you fail to vote at any Election or Referendum held for the region or district for which you are enrolled in, you must provide to the Commissioner the reason for not doing so.

If this reason is valid and sufficient no penalty will be applied.

Should it be decided that the excuse is not valid or sufficient, a penalty of $20 will apply (a penalty of $50 applies if the non voter is recorded as having not voted at a previous General Election, Referendum or By-Election).