The ACT Electoral Commission has blamed slow delivery by Australia Post for a spike in the number of postal votes that didn't arrive in time to be counted at the 2016 ACT election.
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In 2012, 318 postal votes were received too late; in 2016, the number had more than doubled, to 701.
"This is a strong indication that the current postal service is not meeting the requirements for long distance postal voting. A significant number of electors were disenfranchised in 2016 as a result of their residency in an overseas location," Electoral Commissioner Phillip Green said in his report on the election.
"There is genuine concern across Australian electoral jurisdictions that recent alterations to Australia Post's business model is resulting in increased delivery times for postal items and in turn is potentially increasing the likelihood that a postal vote may be rejected.
The turnaround from the start of pre-polling to the deadline of the return of postal votes was 24 days, and it was increasingly likely that a postal vote did not have time to reach the elector, be completed, and be returned in time.
Mr Green said he would investigate an electronic option for overseas voters, such as email-based voting.
His report also calls again for an increase in the fine for failing to vote – a recommendation also made after the last election, but rejected by the parliament.
The ACT has the highest percentage of non-voters in the country other than the Northern Territory, and the figure is steadily rising. In 2016, 11.7 per cent of Canberrans failed to vote.
So far, 3931 had paid the $20 fine, with the Electoral Commission still pursing 10,738 others.
Mr Green's report said only the Commonwealth, Western Australia and the ACT charged as little as $20, with most states linking fines to "penalty units", which increase with inflation. Mr Green suggested a fine of one-quarter of a penalty unit, rounded down to the nearest $5, which would make it $35 currently.
The commission recommended new zones on Canberra's arterial roads where campaign signs would be allowed, to stop the signs proliferating on main roads and arterial roads throughout the city.
It was wary of new "time consuming and/or cumbersome methods of regulating signs", such as a limit to numbers, but specifying sections of road where signs were allowed would be relatively straightforward to regulate.
"Any signs placed outside the specified routes would automatically be confiscated by city rangers. This would be a significant incentive to deter parties and candidates from placing signs illegally, as the cost of any confiscated signs would be deducted from their expenditure cap amounts," the commission said.
Among other recommendations, it says:
- Pre-poll voting should be opened to anyone, not just people signing declarations that they are unable to vote on polling day. More than one in three voted early in 2016.
- People should be required to use their full name when authorising election material, not simply an initial and last name. Organisations behind campaign material should also be identified.
- The cap on election spending be increased for independent candidates and for third parties, such as unions and others. When Labor and Liberal reduced the cap in 2014 from $60,000 per candidate to $40,000 per candidate, the Electoral Commission recommended that independents and third parties should be allowed to spend more than $40,000. The major parties can spend $40,000 for each of 25 candidates, totalling $1 million. The recommendation was rejected in 2014, but Mr Green has now renewed it.
His report refers to problems on election night with the results website, as a result of a higher than expected load. Demand peaked at 80 requests a second, and averaged 40 requests a second, which was eight to to 16 times more than expected.
