Hi guys
My mum got a fine saying she didn't vote at the state election late last year. She is permanently based overseas. Is that a valid reason for not voting?
Thanks Oneiricer
State election fine
Oneiricer on 30/03/2019 - 10:43
Comments
An accurate and succinct answer, don't know why you're getting downvoted. According to the eyes of the law its not a valid reason.
Even if the above is a reason to be excused, you've still gotta write and apply… you can't just not tell the electoral office and expect them to know.
No input, but I'd also like to know, as my dad is in the exact same situation. received a letter last week asking him to explain why he didn't vote.
I put 'permanently resides overseas' as reason for any state/local election for my parents and never got fined.
They vote for the federal election overseas.
Is that a valid reason for not voting?
https://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/Voters/I-didn-t-vote/Penalt…
(6) For the purposes of this section, it is a sufficient reason for a failure by a resident to vote if the Electoral Commissioner is satisfied that the resident:
(a) is dead, or
(b) was absent from the area on polling day6b looks pretty good to me… However given OP is in Victoria and NSW, your link may not be all that helpful.
what did the state electoral office say when you asked them/
honest question as they are the ones who will give the right answer <—I'm really guessing that part. because even though though they are incharge of voting records, and issuing fines then they might not know (that last bit is sarcasm)
On tbe election date, you should for a reason can not vote form(or something like this) on your mum behalf,fill that in and return to the election offical or voting center manager.
Now you need to send a document to explain she is overseas at that time
She is permanently based overseas. Is that a valid reason for not voting?
No
So my uncle is in the army and is overseas. Does that mean he gets fined too?
Unless they're situated in a military base, it's very hard to vote.
So my uncle is in the army and is overseas. Does that mean he gets fined too?
Why don't you ask him…. They Army has voting arranged for them ;)
I don't have his number.
Contact the Victorian Electoral Commission and explain the situation. She should be fine. (As opposed to being fined)
how dare you suggest that they contact relevant statutory body that is legislated to decided these issues!!!!!
Not having compulsory voting may mean that only the fanatics may show up and vote. Australia could be worse off in the control of parties other than the two majors.
Plus and negs for both options. True what you say but with compulsory voting you are forcing people to participate and they just vote like donkeys… disinterested and ill informed.. thus the politicians and broken govt that we now have.
What's the fix? A dictator?? LOL
harmful to democracy and the opposite of a free country
What's the fix?
First to realise that freedom and democracy are not necessarily the same thing. They can be, but they're more often not.
But compulsory voting means people who are on the fence or completely ignorant can skew the vote against their own interest.
Voting is based on having your interests represented. Compulsory voting does/may not achieve this.
I'm in no way claiming the opposite is better. As you say, if only the fanatics go in to vote, we'd have the polar opposites of immigration taking the grand stand. Also, environmentalist and tinfoilhatist will go unchallenged.
It's in no way a representation of the success of this voting system, merely the failure of society to be informed and vote out of want and not need.
people who are on the fence or completely ignorant can skew the vote against their own interest.
They may cast an informal vote.
@whooah1979: But would they? Or would they vote for the party with the hottest banner boy/girl at the booth?
I wouldn't be expecting the uninformed to be informed enough to invalidate their uninformed vote.
@whooah1979: 5.9% informal.
Up to 49% deemed deliberate.
That's 3% of votes. It's not small but it's it is niche.
In a democracy, the voting public gets exactly what it deserves. And those who don’t vote can’t complain about the outcome. Brexit, Trump anyone?
@Ozpit: Brexit and Trump clearly have their flaws but when considering if the outcome is good or bad, you'd have to relate it to the alternative.
Hillary who makes Trump's moral failings pale in comparison or god forbid, Bernie.
I agree, the country collectively deserves their leader.
@[Deactivated]: Only morons or immoral people genuinely believe Hillary is "far more immoral than Trump".
Maybe @Diji1 would enjoy his life under Pauline or Clive…
As long as it is not a Utopia where no one has to work, the environment is protected and everyone has access to universal living wage, I'm sure there's something to blame.
You'd know this unless you're a "mindless drone parroting the news", he repetitively says. The irony.
I find it mildly irritating that people complain that they have to vote. It's a freedom that people from many other nations die for.
Being overseas is a great reason for telling the electoral office you are overseas before you go and before an election.
This is a democracy now do what you're told!
You can vote online-very easy and no queues.
So being overseas is no excuse then?
Yep, in laws were in Burma and managed to do it on shtty internet
Yes.
I was on holiday once for an election, got a fine and they waived it when i proved I was overseas during the postal and voting day periods.
Still can't believe they force us to use pencils in this modern age but send financial information and can launch nuclear weapons over the internet.
The last time I voted, I think I used a pen.
Most of the stations had pen but mine had a pencil.
Ah. You must be from district that hasn't earned their ink license.
@[Deactivated]: I'm actually running around this world using pens all willy nilly having never gotten a pen licence. The reason being that my fine motor skills were so poor, that I was never able to get a pen licence in the years you were meant to and there came a grade when everyone just used pens and they didn't even check your licence.
Internet voting would be open to hacking.
Have we forgotten the last Census already? Ha ha haInternet voting would be open to hacking.
So can every other thing on the internet.
Still happy to go to polling places to vote.Yes, but rarely from powerful state actors. The NSA or the CCP have the capability to break into, or shutdown, literally anything, between intentional backdoors and a library of 0-days.
Online elections are a great way for the Chinese government to influence who gets voted in.
Internet voting would be open to hacking.
Have we forgotten the last Census already?I don't think the last census was hacked.
You can use a pen - pencils are used as they are easily stored between elections. Ink in pens dries up.
Remember how well the Govt handled the Census the first time they let us do it via the Internet?! Imagine them handling voting.
So few things to point out.
1) was fine addressed to you? If you opened it and do not currently hold a power of attorney document for your parent then you have broken the law.
2) your parents can vote at embassy in country they reside in.
3) they can advise AEC and state commissions that they are permanently residing overseas to be removed from roll and be excluded from voting requirements.Further to point one: my best friend was in exact situation as you at last federal election. Contacted AEC to say parent was overseas and couldn’t vote etc. fine was waived but he was fined some huge amount of money as the AEC forwarded the matter on as he essentially admitted in writing when he wrote to the aec to have fine reviewed that he had opened a letter not addressed to him. The court told him (yes he went to court) that he needs a power of attorney to have authority to open mail on behalf of another person. He now has that document to protect himself in the future.
2) your parents can vote at embassy in country they reside in.
I did that when I lived in Tokyo.
it was like a party at the Oz embassy.
That's very harsh! How much were they fined?
Did your friend have permission from the parents to open their mail?
If they did it's unusual to be prosecuted for this because it would have to be shown that they dishonestly opened the mail. For example opening somebody else's mail by mistake won't get you in trouble.
Perhaps… but not all consular offices are polling stations. E.g in Guangzhou - China’s third biggest city - the consular office was not a polling station for this years election. You can’t expect people to take a 2hr flight?
havent voted in over 20years
Good. Then you have no right to complain about any political party that gets voted in.
It’s like complaining about not winning the lottery but never buying a ticket…
Some seats are won by a handful of votes. In fact one vote in every seat technically becomes the winning vote, so saying it makes no difference is nonsense…
Even the smallest person can change the course of the future
It’s very easy to vote at an Australian embassy while abroad. What is harder is being near the embassy. It’s up to you to know when elections are on and ensure that if you can’t vote, you inform them prior or soon after, rather than them be chasing you months later.
Doesn't really matter. Just enjoy your travels and if you happen to get a fine down the track just return the form with reason for not voting (in this case travelling overseas) and it will be withdrawn. Easy.
Travelling is one thing, but OPs mum lives overseas and as such should have been able to organise alternative methods of voting prior to the election. They may not withdraw it as easily, especially if they are based in a city with an embassy.
The main problem they may actually face is not keeping their residential address up to date.
I think you're over analysing it. In my experience the AEC withdraw fines quite readily. All that is needed is a basic excuse.
The address not being up to date will also not be a problem. All they'll do is update it with info from the mum or remove her from the role altogether.
you don't have to vote if you are overseas (I have been overseas for a few elections).
Correct. Even if you are just on holiday.
And if you permanently live overseas you can get your name taken off the electoral roll so you don't have to deal with these ridiculous fines.
They tried to fine my whole family coz we didn’t vote.
They kept sending the fine and we just ignored it and they gave up.Either that or my sister wrote a letter saying sorry.
We never paid but I’m in vic
I was fined once when I did vote out of area, I simply sealed up the fine, wrote return to sender, and that I voted at time X location Y. Never heard about it again.
Until they remove preferences from voting I wont vote…. One Vote should mean one Vote…… I just go to get my name crossed off and get my voting papers and bin them on the way out.
Permanently oversea should forfeit Australian citizenship….
Is that you, Peter Dutton?
Just call up, my wife and I moved interstate and missed an election due to not changing our electoral enrolment, my wife called up and had both the fines waved without any issues.
Thanks a lot everyone!
I don't understand why voting is compulsory. At every election we are promised this that and the other however once in power those we voted in seem to do nothing we really want and spend our money however they see fit. It's a fkin joke really.
your mum got fined, because someone has to pay for the mp's private helicopter rides
On another note, why don't they allow online voting for everyone?. Btw, you can vote online if you are overseas, interstate etc(atleast in NSW).
I voted online using ivote. Just say the reason for having to use the online vote as you will be interstate.
I got out of my NSW election fines while in UK.
I sent a copy of my working holiday visa and date of entry from my passport. Was enough to prove it was relocation for more than half year, so tax resident elsewhere.
My mother was power of attorney to open my mail and mail was redirected to her address.
I dont vote so when I get the fine I just write in saying I'm a jehovahs witness and they waive the fine.
Yea it's fine. Even a holiday overseas is enough, if you were not in the area on voting day. Done this a few times over the years for myself and family members. Never been asked for proof either, you'll get a notice in the mail, just mark the box saying you were somewhere else and mail it back.
While based overseas I recently called up SDRO to nominate the driver for a fine in my car and mentioned being out of the country for a while. They told me during the call that I had 1 or 2 voting fines that I wasn't aware of, and they waived them without me even asking.
No