Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining me on the line right now, will head across
straight away because joining me on the line right now
is the Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner, Kirsten Kelly. Good morning
to your commissioner. Good morning, thanks so much for your
time this morning. Now, Commissioner, I'm just reading obviously this
statement that's come through from the City of Darwin. So
this we now know that Leah Potter had filed against
(00:23):
the City of Darwin and the Northern Territory Electoral Commission
in the Supreme Court. The application sought injunctive relief on
some matters relating to the early voting centers. From your perspective,
what does this now mean for the local government elections?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So you correct that, and we've just seen the media
release as well. So the Anti Electoral Commission was named
as the second defendant in that injunction application which was
heard in the Supreme Court yesterday. The application was primarily
an injunction against the City of Darwin. The plaintiff did
seek a number of orders, one of which was for
the ntech team handle the candidate how to vote campaign materials,
(01:03):
and the antech opposed that and the court didn't make
any orders regarding those lines. So the ANTECH is not
providing or managing the how to vote tables at any
venues in this election. So there were no formal orders
made and the statement that was released by City of
Darwin provides the undertakings that were agreed between the City
of Darwen and the plaintiff.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I mean, it's all, I suppose, quite confusing for me,
and I'm pretty experienced when it comes to elections, so
I would imagine a lot of people listening this morning
are feeling quite confused. So does it now mean that
if they go if you know, a territory and goes
to vote today or tomorrow, that there will be candidates
there able to campaign and able to approach them or
(01:44):
talk to them.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So for the early voting period, so again the Anti
Electric Commission will manage the ten meter prohibition zone and
the actual voting center itself, so outside of that City
of Darwin as a landowner, is responsible. So what happened
yesterday was that an injunction application was made and today
the City of Darwin has released information which to support
(02:08):
voters is that they won't be issuing any infringement notice
to candidates who are reasonably canvassing and interacting with voters
at the City of Darwin, Casarina and City early voting center.
So if candidates are reasonably canvassing and interacting with voters
at those locations, then there are no infringement notices will
be issued and that the how to vote tables will
(02:31):
continue to be maintained and available through the early voting
period and campaigning is permitted as was always a case
on election day.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
But so they still have to be ten meters away
from those doors, right.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
That's correct. So under the local government electoral rules and
the local government election regulations, it's an offense to canvas
for votes within ten meters of the entrance to a
voting center.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I mean, is this a bit of an embarrassing situation
for the council and the electoral Commission.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I think that there's always challenges during elections in canvassing,
and there has been in the past similar rules where
landowners have applied restrictions outside that ten meters. So it's
certainly something that there's an opportunity for it to be clarified.
And then that was clarified yesterday through an injunction application
for the Supreme Court, and.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
So I know, it's still a few days to get
through Commissioner, but I'm assuming that this is going to
be something that's really looked into for future, you know,
for future council elections.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Absolutely. So at the end of every election, the Electoral
Commission repair prepares a report and that looks at the
electoral reform, It looks at operational reform, and it looks
that it's potentially even case studies that we include in
election reports and have in the past regarding events and
things that have occurred during the election and looking for
opportunities to improve that for the future.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
All right, let's talk about the next few days in
terms of what people need to do and just how
long they've got to get out there and vote if
they haven't done so already. First off, where are we
at in terms of the numbers of how many people
that have early voted?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So very important. So we've got two more days left,
so including today and tomorrow of early voting, so we've
got an extra hour available tomorrow we're voting. Early voting
is available from eight until six o'clock and then early
voting concludes. So where we're currently sitting is thirty four
thousand and eleven electors have early voted and that's through
early voting center's remote and urban mobile teams. So that's
(04:30):
about twenty five percent of the eligible voting population, so
quite a good turnout compared to twenty one early voting
votes issue through early voting centers with thirty seven thousand,
just thirty seven and a half thousand, So we're all
already out thirty five thousand with sorry thirty four thousand
with two days of early voting to go. So if
(04:51):
anyone isn't able to vote on election day, please take
the opportunity, if you're ready to vote now, to attend
a early voting center.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So can you just remind our listeners. I know some
of them will know, but can you just remind our
listeners where they can vote and what the voting like,
what the hours are going to be that those centers.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Operate, So the on election day, yeah, yeah, So in
Darwen there'll be the AA and T Center or the
formerly the Darwen Entertainment Center will be an election day
voting center and voting will be available from eight until
six on election day Nightcliffe Middle School is another election
(05:28):
day voting centers from eight to six as well as
is Sanderson Middle School and Casuarina Library, So it's really
important if you're out of your council. So if you're
in Alice Springs and in Darwin for the weekend and
want to vote, you'll need to vote at the Darwin
City voting Center because the other voting centers will just
have the ballot papers for the city of Darwin count
Rum and same with Palmerston. There's only certain voting centers
(05:52):
if you're out of your council week and be receiving
ballot papers, so look on our website for those locations.
I will say that there are are some locations that
we're voting centers in the twenty twenty one election that
aren't going to be used for this election, so it's
really important that you look on the website or call
the service center to find where they are. We are
putting signage on those locations today just to let people
(06:15):
know that they aren't voting centers. And catering a library
as a voting center is quite a popular and busy one,
so suggest on election day because it can get quite
busy there. If you're able to vote at Nightcliff Middle
School or Sanderson Middle School, they might be better locations
to avoid having to wait.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Commissioner, do you usually see a mad rush in the
final days of early voting? Are you expecting those numbers
to sort of pump right up over the coming days?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, so usually on the Friday, because we have that
extra hour at the end of the day, people are
on their way home from work, they tend to pop
in for that final early voting opportunity. And then election
Day we don't see as many people turn out as
we do in early voting. And obviously there's one day
versus like a two week period of early voting, so
(06:59):
certainly there's three days left. Basically, that's the message today
and tomorrow until six and then election days on Saturday,
and if you have got your mobile phone or email
registered on your election enrollment, we will be sending a
reminder text to those electors just to say that on
Saturday if they if they haven't voted, that today's the
last opportunity, so take advantage of those options.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
And in terms of the postal votes, when do they
need to be completed?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
So you're here. So we've issued four hundred and eighty
nine postal votes and of that one thousand seven hundred
and sixty one have been returned and will have been
admitted and will be counted when we start the count.
So postal votes have to be returned by the fifth Friday,
the fifth of September, and we have to have received
(07:47):
them by before twelve noon for them to be added.
So there's a little bit of time. But the really
important thing for postal voters is that you have to
have completed your ballot paper by six pm on election
day high time, and then to make sure that you
actually sign and declare put the day in time that
you've completed that ballot paper and then you've got a
little bit of time to get it back to us.
But certainly encage people to use the reply paid envelope
(08:09):
that they've been given and pop it in the mail,
or they can return it directly to our office in
Darwin as well or in our springs now Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Obviously we're getting to the pointy end in terms of
the final days, and then on Saturday, that's the final
day people can vote, you know, to go in there
and vote. What's involved in the vote counting process and
how soon could we expect to see some of those
results flowing through do you think.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So we cannot open physically open any boxes until after
voting concludes. So the actual count process starts in scrutiney
centers from six pm. So we have two scrutiney centers
in Darwin and one in Ola Springs and that's where
all of the early votes will be counted. All of
the election day voting centers become scrutiney centers after six
(08:55):
pm and so the voting center staff will count that
the votes that are issued on election day. So the
first forty minutes an hour sometimes depending on how big
the accounts are, is basically unfolding, So opening the ballot
box and unfolding and sorting, that's all done under scrutiny.
So there'll be an opportunity to start seeing results come
(09:15):
through from six pm on election night and they'll be
available on the ntech website. So really important that election
night we're doing a primary count, so we're looking at
a preliminary count, but all ballot papers again will be
looked at again from Monday, and that's really important to know.
So the first night is that indicative count where we're
looking at the ones and looking at informality, but there
(09:38):
will be a recheck and a further scrutiny again, with
scrutiny as in attendance over a two week period where
we look at those ballot papers again.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And in terms of you know, this is a question
we get asked regularly in terms of the preferences. You know,
if somebody gets enough votes on their primary votes, do
those preferences still come into play? How does it work?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, So it's probably important to distinguish between where you
have an election where there's only one vacancy, So where
you have an election so it might be the mayor
position where there's one vacancy, or some wards only have
one vacancy as well. So in those instances, a person
to be elected has to achieve fifty percent of the
first preference votes and that has to be the formal vote.
(10:21):
So you need to actually work out what the formal
votes are to be able to work out who's elected.
And sometimes when we have quite a number where we've
got like four six and a half thousand postal votes
and they don't have to be returned until the fifth
of September, it's not always easy to understand how many
formal votes you have to work out what your fifty
percent is or what your quota is, So that's the
(10:44):
first thing. So secondly, where you have multiple vacancies or
proportional representation voting, you might have number of candidates that
have to achieve a quota to be elected, but there's
more than one position, so we can't work out that
quota until we know how many formal ballot papers have
been admitted to the count, and that will happen at
(11:04):
the close of votes, so you'll always have your number
of votes countered and you'll be able to see where
the first preferences are and those results will be published,
but it takes that full count period to be able
to go through. For the multi vacancy positions, we use
easy count software enter those because when someone is elected,
(11:24):
they have to achieve a quota. So you're quite right,
and someone can achieve a quota on a first preference count,
they can achieve a quota where surplus votes from a
candidate are transferred to them, and they can achieve a
quota if a person is excluded because they've had the
lowest number of counts and their second preferences move. So
it's quite complicated the process, but.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, it sounds like it will be. It sounds like
it's going to be a busy, busy day for you
guys on Saturday. What day do you sort of call
it quits in terms of counting votes on Saturday night
and then cracking back into it the following day.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, So we have a tigue management strategy, So a
lot of our staff work obviously quite long hours on
election day, so it's important that they're quite rested. But
we do bring in count teams to support the count process.
So we do have a policy where we will conclude
counts or not start new counts from ten thirty unless
there's a good reason to do that or approvals given,
(12:18):
and then we won't be counting again until the Monday,
when we'll start to do the fresh scrutiny and looking
at all the ballot papers again and then starting to
batch all of the ballot papers to be entered into
the easy count software. So it is a long day
for the staff, and we are mindful of the balance
of getting results out but also making sure that staff
(12:39):
are aren't fatigued.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Commission, I know you've answered this one for me before,
but I want to ask again in terms of people
who do not turn up to vote, are they going
to be fined?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So it is compulsory to vote in Northern Terrisor elections,
and it is compulsory vote in local counts elections, and
in some jurisdictions it isn't for local governments. We make
that really important point. Some one has moved to the
territory from another jurisdiction. So at the end of the
election we'll look at the non voter data and then
we'll make a decision whether we'll be issuing infringement notices
(13:10):
for failing to vote.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well, Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner, Kirst and Kelly really appreciate
your time this morning. All the best for the coming days.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Thanks so much, have a great day.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Thank you.
Joining me on the line right now, will head across
straight away because joining me on the line right now
is the Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner, Kirsten Kelly. Good morning
to your commissioner. Good morning, thanks so much for your
time this morning. Now, Commissioner, I'm just reading obviously this
statement that's come through from the City of Darwin. So
this we now know that Leah Potter had filed against
(00:23):
the City of Darwin and the Northern Territory Electoral Commission
in the Supreme Court. The application sought injunctive relief on
some matters relating to the early voting centers. From your perspective,
what does this now mean for the local government elections?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So you correct that, and we've just seen the media
release as well. So the Anti Electoral Commission was named
as the second defendant in that injunction application which was
heard in the Supreme Court yesterday. The application was primarily
an injunction against the City of Darwin. The plaintiff did
seek a number of orders, one of which was for
the ntech team handle the candidate how to vote campaign materials,
(01:03):
and the antech opposed that and the court didn't make
any orders regarding those lines. So the ANTECH is not
providing or managing the how to vote tables at any
venues in this election. So there were no formal orders
made and the statement that was released by City of
Darwin provides the undertakings that were agreed between the City
of Darwen and the plaintiff.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I mean, it's all, I suppose, quite confusing for me,
and I'm pretty experienced when it comes to elections, so
I would imagine a lot of people listening this morning
are feeling quite confused. So does it now mean that
if they go if you know, a territory and goes
to vote today or tomorrow, that there will be candidates
there able to campaign and able to approach them or
(01:44):
talk to them.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So for the early voting period, so again the Anti
Electric Commission will manage the ten meter prohibition zone and
the actual voting center itself, so outside of that City
of Darwin as a landowner, is responsible. So what happened
yesterday was that an injunction application was made and today
the City of Darwin has released information which to support
(02:08):
voters is that they won't be issuing any infringement notice
to candidates who are reasonably canvassing and interacting with voters
at the City of Darwin, Casarina and City early voting center.
So if candidates are reasonably canvassing and interacting with voters
at those locations, then there are no infringement notices will
be issued and that the how to vote tables will
(02:31):
continue to be maintained and available through the early voting
period and campaigning is permitted as was always a case
on election day.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
But so they still have to be ten meters away
from those doors, right.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
That's correct. So under the local government electoral rules and
the local government election regulations, it's an offense to canvas
for votes within ten meters of the entrance to a
voting center.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I mean, is this a bit of an embarrassing situation
for the council and the electoral Commission.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I think that there's always challenges during elections in canvassing,
and there has been in the past similar rules where
landowners have applied restrictions outside that ten meters. So it's
certainly something that there's an opportunity for it to be clarified.
And then that was clarified yesterday through an injunction application
for the Supreme Court, and.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
So I know, it's still a few days to get
through Commissioner, but I'm assuming that this is going to
be something that's really looked into for future, you know,
for future council elections.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Absolutely. So at the end of every election, the Electoral
Commission repair prepares a report and that looks at the
electoral reform, It looks at operational reform, and it looks
that it's potentially even case studies that we include in
election reports and have in the past regarding events and
things that have occurred during the election and looking for
opportunities to improve that for the future.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
All right, let's talk about the next few days in
terms of what people need to do and just how
long they've got to get out there and vote if
they haven't done so already. First off, where are we
at in terms of the numbers of how many people
that have early voted?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So very important. So we've got two more days left,
so including today and tomorrow of early voting, so we've
got an extra hour available tomorrow we're voting. Early voting
is available from eight until six o'clock and then early
voting concludes. So where we're currently sitting is thirty four
thousand and eleven electors have early voted and that's through
early voting center's remote and urban mobile teams. So that's
(04:30):
about twenty five percent of the eligible voting population, so
quite a good turnout compared to twenty one early voting
votes issue through early voting centers with thirty seven thousand,
just thirty seven and a half thousand, So we're all
already out thirty five thousand with sorry thirty four thousand
with two days of early voting to go. So if
(04:51):
anyone isn't able to vote on election day, please take
the opportunity, if you're ready to vote now, to attend
a early voting center.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So can you just remind our listeners. I know some
of them will know, but can you just remind our
listeners where they can vote and what the voting like,
what the hours are going to be that those centers.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Operate, So the on election day, yeah, yeah, So in
Darwen there'll be the AA and T Center or the
formerly the Darwen Entertainment Center will be an election day
voting center and voting will be available from eight until
six on election day Nightcliffe Middle School is another election
(05:28):
day voting centers from eight to six as well as
is Sanderson Middle School and Casuarina Library, So it's really
important if you're out of your council. So if you're
in Alice Springs and in Darwin for the weekend and
want to vote, you'll need to vote at the Darwin
City voting Center because the other voting centers will just
have the ballot papers for the city of Darwin count
Rum and same with Palmerston. There's only certain voting centers
(05:52):
if you're out of your council week and be receiving
ballot papers, so look on our website for those locations.
I will say that there are are some locations that
we're voting centers in the twenty twenty one election that
aren't going to be used for this election, so it's
really important that you look on the website or call
the service center to find where they are. We are
putting signage on those locations today just to let people
(06:15):
know that they aren't voting centers. And catering a library
as a voting center is quite a popular and busy one,
so suggest on election day because it can get quite
busy there. If you're able to vote at Nightcliff Middle
School or Sanderson Middle School, they might be better locations
to avoid having to wait.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Commissioner, do you usually see a mad rush in the
final days of early voting? Are you expecting those numbers
to sort of pump right up over the coming days?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, so usually on the Friday, because we have that
extra hour at the end of the day, people are
on their way home from work, they tend to pop
in for that final early voting opportunity. And then election
Day we don't see as many people turn out as
we do in early voting. And obviously there's one day
versus like a two week period of early voting, so
(06:59):
certainly there's three days left. Basically, that's the message today
and tomorrow until six and then election days on Saturday,
and if you have got your mobile phone or email
registered on your election enrollment, we will be sending a
reminder text to those electors just to say that on
Saturday if they if they haven't voted, that today's the
last opportunity, so take advantage of those options.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
And in terms of the postal votes, when do they
need to be completed?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
So you're here. So we've issued four hundred and eighty
nine postal votes and of that one thousand seven hundred
and sixty one have been returned and will have been
admitted and will be counted when we start the count.
So postal votes have to be returned by the fifth Friday,
the fifth of September, and we have to have received
(07:47):
them by before twelve noon for them to be added.
So there's a little bit of time. But the really
important thing for postal voters is that you have to
have completed your ballot paper by six pm on election
day high time, and then to make sure that you
actually sign and declare put the day in time that
you've completed that ballot paper and then you've got a
little bit of time to get it back to us.
But certainly encage people to use the reply paid envelope
(08:09):
that they've been given and pop it in the mail,
or they can return it directly to our office in
Darwin as well or in our springs now Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Obviously we're getting to the pointy end in terms of
the final days, and then on Saturday, that's the final
day people can vote, you know, to go in there
and vote. What's involved in the vote counting process and
how soon could we expect to see some of those
results flowing through do you think.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So we cannot open physically open any boxes until after
voting concludes. So the actual count process starts in scrutiney
centers from six pm. So we have two scrutiney centers
in Darwin and one in Ola Springs and that's where
all of the early votes will be counted. All of
the election day voting centers become scrutiney centers after six
(08:55):
pm and so the voting center staff will count that
the votes that are issued on election day. So the
first forty minutes an hour sometimes depending on how big
the accounts are, is basically unfolding, So opening the ballot
box and unfolding and sorting, that's all done under scrutiny.
So there'll be an opportunity to start seeing results come
(09:15):
through from six pm on election night and they'll be
available on the ntech website. So really important that election
night we're doing a primary count, so we're looking at
a preliminary count, but all ballot papers again will be
looked at again from Monday, and that's really important to know.
So the first night is that indicative count where we're
looking at the ones and looking at informality, but there
(09:38):
will be a recheck and a further scrutiny again, with
scrutiny as in attendance over a two week period where
we look at those ballot papers again.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And in terms of you know, this is a question
we get asked regularly in terms of the preferences. You know,
if somebody gets enough votes on their primary votes, do
those preferences still come into play? How does it work?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, So it's probably important to distinguish between where you
have an election where there's only one vacancy, So where
you have an election so it might be the mayor
position where there's one vacancy, or some wards only have
one vacancy as well. So in those instances, a person
to be elected has to achieve fifty percent of the
first preference votes and that has to be the formal vote.
(10:21):
So you need to actually work out what the formal
votes are to be able to work out who's elected.
And sometimes when we have quite a number where we've
got like four six and a half thousand postal votes
and they don't have to be returned until the fifth
of September, it's not always easy to understand how many
formal votes you have to work out what your fifty
percent is or what your quota is, So that's the
(10:44):
first thing. So secondly, where you have multiple vacancies or
proportional representation voting, you might have number of candidates that
have to achieve a quota to be elected, but there's
more than one position, so we can't work out that
quota until we know how many formal ballot papers have
been admitted to the count, and that will happen at
(11:04):
the close of votes, so you'll always have your number
of votes countered and you'll be able to see where
the first preferences are and those results will be published,
but it takes that full count period to be able
to go through. For the multi vacancy positions, we use
easy count software enter those because when someone is elected,
(11:24):
they have to achieve a quota. So you're quite right,
and someone can achieve a quota on a first preference count,
they can achieve a quota where surplus votes from a
candidate are transferred to them, and they can achieve a
quota if a person is excluded because they've had the
lowest number of counts and their second preferences move. So
it's quite complicated the process, but.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, it sounds like it will be. It sounds like
it's going to be a busy, busy day for you
guys on Saturday. What day do you sort of call
it quits in terms of counting votes on Saturday night
and then cracking back into it the following day.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, So we have a tigue management strategy, So a
lot of our staff work obviously quite long hours on
election day, so it's important that they're quite rested. But
we do bring in count teams to support the count process.
So we do have a policy where we will conclude
counts or not start new counts from ten thirty unless
there's a good reason to do that or approvals given,
(12:18):
and then we won't be counting again until the Monday,
when we'll start to do the fresh scrutiny and looking
at all the ballot papers again and then starting to
batch all of the ballot papers to be entered into
the easy count software. So it is a long day
for the staff, and we are mindful of the balance
of getting results out but also making sure that staff
(12:39):
are aren't fatigued.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Commission, I know you've answered this one for me before,
but I want to ask again in terms of people
who do not turn up to vote, are they going
to be fined?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So it is compulsory to vote in Northern Terrisor elections,
and it is compulsory vote in local counts elections, and
in some jurisdictions it isn't for local governments. We make
that really important point. Some one has moved to the
territory from another jurisdiction. So at the end of the
election we'll look at the non voter data and then
we'll make a decision whether we'll be issuing infringement notices
(13:10):
for failing to vote.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well, Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner, Kirst and Kelly really appreciate
your time this morning. All the best for the coming days.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Thanks so much, have a great day.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Thank you.
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The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.