Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918

Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
Long title An Act to Consolidate and Amend the Law relating to Parliamentary Elections and for other purposes
Related legislation
Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902

The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 was an Act of the Australian Parliament passed in 1918 which replaced the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 which had defined who was entitled to vote in Australian federal elections. The 1902 Act set uniform national franchise criteria, establishing the voting age at 21 years and women's suffrage at the national level, and a right to stand for election to the Parliament. That Act also disqualified from voting a number of categories of people, including Indigenous peoples from Australian, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands (except New Zealand Maori), even if citizens of the British Empire. The 1902 Act also made it clear that no person could vote more than once at each election. The 1902 Act was amended in 1906 to allow postal voting. In 1911, it became compulsory for all eligible voters to enroll on the electoral roll. Compulsory enrolment led to a large increase in voter turnout, even though voting was still voluntary.^[1]

The 1918 Act introduced instant-runoff voting, known in Australia as preferential voting, for federal elections. Preferential voting, which was pioneered by Queensland in 1892, replaced first-past-the-post voting. The 1918 Act is still the core legislation governing the conduct of elections in Australia, having been amended on numerous occasions since 1918.

Compulsory voting at federal elections was introduced in 1924. The single transferable vote was introduced for the Senate in 1949. Indigenous Australians acquired the right to vote at federal elections in 1962. The qualifying voting age was lowered to 18 in 1973.

The Hawke Government made a number of significant changes to the Electoral Act in 1984. An independent Australian Electoral Commission was established to administer the federal electoral system. The number of senators was increased from 64 to 76 (12 each State and two each Territory), an increase of 12, and the number of members of the House of Representatives was increased from 125 to 148, an increase of 23. A Senate group ticket voting system ("above-the-line" voting) was introduced. The registration of political parties was introduced to permit the printing of party names on ballot papers. Public funding of election campaigns and disclosure of political donations and electoral expenditure was introduced. The compulsory enrolment and voting requirement was extended to cover Indigenous Australians, and the franchise qualification was changed to Australian citizenship, though British subjects on the roll immediately before 26 January 1984 retained enrolment rights. The grace period after an election is called before the electoral rolls are closed was extended to seven days and the time that polling places closed was changed from 8pm to 6pm.

See also

• Australian electoral system
• Australian Electoral Commission