At all elections the Returning Officer must account for all ballot papers that are prepared, issued and returned.
Before the commencement of each count, the Returning Officer will also provide scrutineers with the expected number of envelopes or ballot papers to be accounted for in that count.
The tracking process followed by Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) Returning Officers depends on the type of election being conducted.
This document outlines the process followed for attendance elections.
An election is conducted using a roll of those who are entitled to vote. The roll is a snapshot of all those who are entitled to vote at the time when the roll closed. For local council elections, this is called entitlement date and for the 2012 elections is at 4.00 pm on Friday 31 August.
At an attendance election, voters may choose one of a number of voting options.
Most voters will attend a voting centre on election day to cast their vote. Voters can attend any voting centre within their own Municipality and can only vote within their own Municipality.
If voters attend a voting centre located in the ward they are enrolled in, they will be marked off the roll by an election official, issued with a ballot paper and will place their completed ballot paper in the ballot box. These are called “ordinary” votes. There is usually a number of election officials who issue “ordinary” votes at a voting centre.
If a voter attends a voting centre outside the ward in which they are enrolled, they will be marked off the roll, issued with a ballot paper for their own ward, and will place their completed ballot paper in the ballot box. These are called “absent” votes.
In the event that a person claims that they should be on the roll but their name has been left off in error, they may request to be issued with an “unenrolled” vote. This means that their completed ballot material is enclosed in a declaration envelope that is completed and signed by the voter, and their eligibility is checked by VEC and council staff before being admitted or rejected from the count.
There are other situations where a voter may be asked to place their completed ballot paper in a signed declaration envelope. These situations are very rare and include instances where a voters name has already been marked off the roll, where a voter fails to provide proof of identity if requested to do so, and those voters who claim to have applied for a postal vote, but not received one.
These are called “declaration” votes and enable election officials to conduct further checks before admitting a ballot paper to the count.
Voters may choose to vote at an early voting centre before election day. Early voting facilities are available at the election office from the day after nominations close (Wednesday 26 September) until 6.00pm on the day before election day (Friday 26 October). Voters from any ward in the Municipality may vote at an early voting centre.
Additional early voting venues may operate for some councils during part or the whole of this period, but all will close at 6.00 pm on Friday 26 October.
Voters attending an early voting centre, will have their names marked off the roll and will be issued with a ballot paper for the ward they are enrolled in. They are not required to complete a declaration envelope.
The same “declaration” vote categories that apply at an election day voting centre, also apply at early voting centres.
There are two categories of voters who may vote by post:
Electors who meet particular criteria and are registered as general postal voters (GPVs) for State elections, will have postal ballot material for local council elections sent to them automatically by the VEC once nominations close. They do not have to re-apply for each election. Ballot material is mailed to GPVs as soon as practicable after the close of nominations.
Other voters may apply to the Returning Officer to have postal ballot material sent to them. These voters must complete and sign a postal vote application. Applications must be made in the period from the day after the close of nominations to noon on the Thursday before election day.
The Returning Officer will process each postal vote application received on a daily basis and mail ballot material to the voter. Voters enclose their completed ballot paper in a ballot paper envelope, sign the declaration on the removable flap that is attached to the envelope, and enclose the signed envelope in a reply paid envelope for return to the Returning Officer.
Voters may return their completed postal votes to the Returning Officer in the mail or hand deliver to the election office, early voting centre or election day voting centre. All completed postal votes must be received by 6.00pm on election day to be included for further processing.
The VEC arranges the secure printing of ballot papers for all attendance elections. Printed ballot papers are delivered to each Returning Officer who verifies and accounts for the number received. In addition, there may be times when a Returning Officer will need to print additional ballot papers. Print-ready files will be supplied by the VEC. All ballot papers are signed by an election official prior to issue and accounted for by the Returning Officer in their overall account of ballot papers.
The Returning Officer issues quantities of ballot papers to voting centre managers and early voting centre managers. Each transfer of ballot papers is recorded in writing and reconciled against the number of ballot papers returned.
The Returning Officer maintains an account of ballot papers throughout the election and provides an overall account at the end of the election. See section 10 – Account of Ballot Papers.
The mailout of ballot material to General Postal Voters is managed centrally by the VEC and the number of items dispatched is reconciled against the number of General Postal Voters on each roll.
The Returning Officer processes all other applications for postal votes at the election office using the VEC’s Election Management System (EMS). The Returning Officer checks that the number of ballot papers issued each day reconciles with the number of applications processed.
The Returning Officer marks the return of each postal vote envelope against the voters roll using the barcode or elector information that is printed on the removable flap on the envelope. These flaps are removed after the close of voting but before the envelopes are opened, so that the way a person voted cannot be identified.
The Returning Officer is able to check the total number of postal vote envelopes returned by generating a report from EMS. Additional postal votes handed in at early voting centres and election day voting centres may need to be added subsequently. Returned postal vote envelopes are stored in batches of 50.
The signature on each returned postal vote envelope is checked against the corresponding application for each voter (except for GPVs where there is no application). Where there is no match or a signature is missing, the postal vote envelope is put aside as rejected.
After the close of voting at 6.00 pm on election day, the identification flaps on accepted postal vote envelopes are removed. Once the identification flaps have been removed, the envelopes are opened and ballot papers extracted.
During this process, some envelopes are found to be empty and some are found to contain more than one ballot paper. This can occur when members of the same household enclose their ballot papers in the same postal vote envelope. These ballot papers are rejected because it cannot be determined which ballot paper corresponds to the person who signed the declaration on the postal vote envelope.
In addition, some batches of envelopes may be found to contain more or less than the expected 50 envelopes.
These events are recorded during the extraction process using the form shown in Attachment 6 – Declaration Extraction Worksheet. This enables the Returning Officer to determine the total number of ballot papers to be included in the count of postal votes.
Once the total number of accepted postal ballot papers is determined the ballot papers are sorted to each voter’s 1st preference and those determined as informal are put aside. The result of the first preference count of postal votes is reconciled against the starting figure and recorded (see Attachment 7).
The Returning Officer issues each early voting centre manager with a number of ballot papers for each ward in the election. These are recorded and verified by the early voting centre manager. The number of ballot papers issued each day to voters for each ward is also recorded using the Early Voting Daily Ballot Paper Record shown in Attachment 5.
After the close of early voting at 6.00 pm on Friday 26 October, all early voting materials including the sealed ballot boxes and completed copies of the Early Voting Daily Ballot Paper Record are returned to the Returning Officer.
The early votes are counted after 6.00 pm on Election Day – Saturday 27 October.
The ballot box(es) for each early voting centre are opened in the presence of scrutineers and the number of ballot papers for each ward checked against the Early Voting Daily Ballot Paper Record.
Once the balance figure for each ward from each centre has been determined, the ballot papers for each ward are amalgamated and reconciled against the total balance figure before sorting to first preferences.
The result of the first preference count of early votes for each ward is recorded (see Attachment 7).
The number of postal votes handed in at the early voting centre or any declaration votes completed are checked against the early voting centre manager’s records before further processing.
The Returning Officer issues each voting centre manager with a number of ballot papers for all wards in the Council. These are recorded and verified by the voting centre manager. The voting centre manager then issues each ordinary issuing officer with a number of ballot papers for the ward in which the voting centre is located. These are recorded and verified by each issuing officer. A small number of ballot papers for all wards are issued to the declaration issuing officer to be used for absent and other declaration votes.
Any additional allocations of ballot papers to the voting centre manager or issuing officers are also recorded during the day.
At the close of voting at 6.00pm, the voting centre manager must account for all ballot papers issued to voters and determine the expected number of ballot papers to be counted.
Ordinary votes
Each ordinary issuing officer reconciles the number of ballot papers issued to voters. The voting centre manager collects this information from each ordinary issuing officer to determine the expected number of ordinary ballot papers to be counted (own ward). This figure is recorded in box “a” at the top of the First Preference Results count sheet – see Attachments 1 3.
The ordinary ballot papers are counted to first preferences in the voting centre on election night and the results phoned through to the Returning Officer. These are also recorded on the First Preference Results sheet shown in Attachments 1 3.
Absent votes
The “absent” ballot papers issued for other wards are counted and checked against the expected totals on the Voting Centre Record of Declaration Votes (Attachments 2 & 4) in the voting centre before being packaged and returned to the Returning Officer on election night. The “absent” ballot papers for each ward from each voting centre are amalgamated and counted to first preferences and recorded in the election office on the following day – see Attachment 7.
Unenrolled and other declaration votes
The unenrolled, postal and other declaration envelopes are counted and checked against the Voting Centre Record of Declaration Votes, then packaged and returned to the Returning Officer. These undergo further checking before being rejected or admitted for counting. The first preference counts for unenrolled and declaration votes take place on the day after election day in the election office and the results recorded – see Attachment 7.
The following diagram tracks the movement of ballot papers for an attendance election.
The first preference results for each count are progressively recorded by the Returning Officer. Once all 1st preference counts are complete, a consolidated report is produced – see Attachment 7.
All counts for attendance elections involving single vacancies are conducted manually.
For elections involving multiple vacancies, proportional representation counts are required and will be conducted by computer. This involves preferences recorded on ballot papers being data entered into the VEC’s computer count application. Where computer counting is used to determine the final result, initial first preference counts for ordinary, absent, early, postal and declaration votes are conducted manually, to give an indication of first preference allocation prior to the computer count process.
If no candidate achieves an absolute majority of first preference results, a preference distribution must be conducted to determine the result.
Before a preference distribution is conducted, a full recheck of all ballot papers must be conducted.
During a recheck, each parcel of ballot papers from voting centres, postal, absent, early and declaration votes is rechecked for correct sorting and counting.
During a recheck, ballot papers can move from formal to informal and vice versa, batch counting errors may be identified and some ballot papers may be found that have been incorrectly sorted to a particular candidate.