John MacDonald: Isn't enrolling on election day better than not voting at all?

Election Day is like Christmas Day, with some of us not getting ourselves organised until the very last minute - even though we’ve known for ages that it’s happening.  

Christmas day is never sprung on us. We know it happens every 12 months, but there’s a lot of last-minute panicking, isn’t there?  

We get even more warning with Election Day. We know it happens every three years, but there's the same last-minute rush.  

Especially for the 110,000 people who were in the last-minute camp at the last election, enrolling to vote on the same day they voted.  

But the Government’s not having any more of that and, as part of its changes to the way elections are run, it’s doing away with same-day enrolment. Which I think is a mistake.  

But ACT MP Todd Stephenson is loving it, saying: “It’s outrageous that someone completely disengaged and lazy can rock up to the voting booth, get registered there and then, and then vote to tax other people's money away.”  

But he’s missing the point completely, because isn’t it brilliant that more than 100,000 people got to vote in the last election because they could enrol on the day?  

Isn’t it the ones who didn’t vote at all who are the lazy ones?  

The Government’s missing the point too. Because instead of penalising voters because it’s system can’t cope with last minute enrolments, it should be coming up with a system that can cope.  

It should be building a system that enables same day enrolment instead of getting rid of it.  

What it’s doing is effectively reversing something that was brought in for the 2020 election by the previous government. But it's going even further than just reversing what Labour did, and people are going to have to be enrolled and have their details up to date before the 12 days of advance voting begins.  

The Government says it’s making the changes so the votes can be counted quicker. So that we get a result quicker, and so the politicians can get on with doing coalition deals.   

But that’s just an excuse for not putting in the effort to come up with a better system to count the votes. And I’m not the only one saying that today either.  

Electoral law expert Graeme Edgeler is pouring cold water on it as well, saying there’s nothing stopping the politicians who look like they've been elected from beginning coalition negotiations before the final special votes are counted.  

He says the final results can change by one or two seats, but nothing dramatic, and he says, “the time delay just doesn't seem like a particularly good reason for this."  

As for one of the other changes it’s making —delivering on its promise to bring-in a total ban on prisoners voting— that gets a thumbs down from me too.  

Again, it’s getting rid of something brought in by the previous government: voting rights for prisoners serving sentences of less than three years. Which is a mistake because I see a prisoner being able to vote as a way of keeping them engaged with the outside world.  

You might recall a few months back, Sir Ron Young was finishing up as head of the Parole Board and he was saying that the reoffending rate for prisoners who serve short prison terms of two to three years is higher than those inside for longer.   

That’s because they have way less opportunities to get themselves rehabilitated and they end up spending a lot of their time behind bars hanging out with serious crims.  

So he was advocating for keeping these prisoners more engaged with the outside world, and I see voting rights as a way of doing that.  

What’s more, how does a prisoner serving two years being allowed to vote affect you? Answer: it doesn’t. It has no impact on you and no impact on me. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd be you know, election day. Election day is like
Christmas Day, with some of us not getting ourselves organized
until the very last minute. That's what I reckon. You know,
even though we've known for ages that it's happening, Christmas
Day has never sprung on us. We know what happens
every twelve months. Still a lot of last minute panicking, though,
isn't there we get we get even more warning when

(00:33):
it comes to election day. We know it's going to happen.
We know it happens every three years. It's not sprung
on us either. Still the same, especially for the one
hundred and ten thousand people who were in the last
minute camp at the last election, en rolling to vote
on the same day they voted. But the government's not
happen any more of that last minute nonsense. No more

(00:55):
of that slack nonsense. And as part of its change
is to the way elections are run. It's doing away
with same day enrollment. I think it's a mistake. But acting,
he told Stevenson, he is loving it. He's saying, quote,
it's outrageous that someone completely disengaged and lazy can rock
up to the voting booth, get registered there and then

(01:18):
and then vote to tax other people's money away. End
of quote. But he's missing the point completely, because isn't
it brilliant that more than one hundred thousand people got
to vote in the last election because they could enroll
on the day. Aren't the ones who didn't vote? Aren't
they the lazy ones, the ones who didn't vote at all?

(01:39):
And the government's missing the point too, because instead of
penalizing voters because its system can't cope with last minute enrollments,
it should be coming up with a system that can cope.
It should be building a system that enables same day
enrollment instead of getting rid of it. So what it's
doing is effectively reversing something that was brought in for
the twenty twenty election by the previous government, which allowed

(02:01):
people to enroll and update their details up to and
including election. But the current government's going even further. It's
not just reversing, not just reversing what Labor did, and
people are now going to have to be enrolled and
have their details up to date before the twelve days
of advanced voting begins. So the government says, Oh, we're
making the changes. Here's why we're making the changes, so

(02:24):
the votes can be counted quicker, so that we get
a result quicker, and so the politicians can get on
with doing coalition deals. But that's just an excuse for
not putting in the effort to come up with a
better system to count the votes faster. And I'm not
the only one saying that today. Electoral law expert Graham Edgler,
he's pouring cold water on that argument, saying there's nothing

(02:45):
stopping the politicians who look like they've been elected from
beginning coalition negotiations before the final special votes accounted. He says, oh, yeah,
the final results can change by one or two seats,
but nothing dramatic. And he says, quote the time delay
just doesn't seem like a particularly good reason for this.
He says, two weeks or three weeks, does it any matter?

(03:07):
I don't think it matters at all. And I think
the government's making a mistake no longer letting people enroll
to vote on election day, let alone requiring them to
vote or to enroll thirteen days before the election, especially
when it's done nothing to improve the voting system's performance.
And systems, and that claim by the act Emp I've
talked about earlier, who reckons people who enrolled on election

(03:30):
day are completely disengaged and lazy. Well, that is nonsense.
It's the people who don't vote at all. They're the
ones who are lazy and disengaged. As for one of
the other changes it's making, this is the government I'm
talking about delivering on its promise to bring in a
total ban on prisoners voting. That gets a thumbs down
from me as well. Again it's getting rid of something
brought in by the previous government. Voting rights for prisoners

(03:52):
serving sentences of less than three years. They're gone, Burger gone,
which is another mistake, because I see a prisoner being
able to vote as a way of keeping them engaged
with the outside world. You might recall was a couple
of months back and Sir Ron Young was finishing up
as head of the Parole Board and he was saying
that the reoffending rate for prisoners who serve short prison

(04:12):
terms of two to three years is higher than those
inside for longer, and that's because they have way less
opportunities to get themselves rehabilitated. So he wanted prisoners to
be more engaged with the outside world, and that's how
I see voting rights for prisoners. What's more, how does
the prisoner serving two years being allowed to vote? How

(04:33):
does it affect you? Answer? It doesn't. It has no
impact on you, no impact on me, which is why
I thought it was a very good thing that was
introduced when it was introduced, and I think it's bad
that the government is going to change it.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
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