Acknowledgements endorsements Background methodology executive Summary 11 Recommendations 22 Article — general obligations 38

Lack of Access to Secret Ballots

537. 
     Australia is recognised for being the first country to develop and implement the secret ballot in 1856, which is still commonly referred to as the ‘Australian ballot’.
     
538. 
     The Electoral Act prescribes the assistance to be given to certain voters with sensory or physical impairment to cast a vote. Such voters must nominate a person of their choosing or a polling official to enter the voting booth with the voter and assist with marking, folding and depositing the voting paper in to the ballot box. This arrangement falls far short of providing people with disability with a secret ballot. There is also no confidentiality in an ‘assisted ballot’.⁶¹¹
     
539. 
     In the 2007 federal election, Electronically Assisted Voting (EAV) was trialled in 29 locations to enable an independent vote for electors who have vision impairment.⁶¹² This gave over 300,000 Australians with vision impairment the ability to cast a secret and independent ballot for the first time.⁶¹³ Statistically, 850 blind or vision impaired voters successfully used EAV at the 2007 election, and over 97 percent of respondents surveyed were satisfied or very satisfied with the system.⁶¹⁴
     

Case Study

“For the first time in my life, I won’t have to tell someone else who I am voting for. I have voted in many federal, state and local elections but I have always had another person marking my ballot paper. Now I can truly exercise my democratic right in the same way as others.”⁶¹⁵

540. 
     A subsequent Federal Government report recommended discontinuing EAV on the basis that the average cost per vote was too high.⁶¹⁶ However, there was no analysis of the average cost per vote if EAV was available to all voters, as it is in other nations, such as the United States of America and the Netherlands. There was no consideration of the benefit of EAV to other voters, such as those people who have limited ability to use paper ballot forms.⁶¹⁷ There was also no consideration that the additional costs in providing people with disability with equal political rights are a “necessary trade off in allowing one group of electors to exercise the same quality of franchise as most of the community”.⁶¹⁸
     
541. 
     Ballot papers are also not provided in accessible formats, such as Braille, which means people who are blind or have vision impairment must rely on someone else to cast their vote for them. In Fittler v NSW Electoral Commission, the tribunal held that failing to provide a ballot paper in Braille to a blind or vision impaired person was unlawful discrimination. Mr Fittler was subsequently provided with a Braille ballot form in the next local government election, allowing him to vote independently for the first time:
     

The right to vote in secret is now such a well-established, deep-rooted principle that many view as a necessary ingredient to maintaining democratic integrity.⁶¹⁹

542. 
     A 2010 legislative development allowed for the Electoral Commissioner to determine the method of secret ballot.⁶²⁰ Under these rules, electors who are blind or have vision impairment would have the option of attending an electoral office to be connected to trained call centre operators to complete their ballot papers in private.⁶²¹ This approach does not however assure the voter of anonymity and will require the voter to travel to the divisional office to cast their vote.