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Speaker 1: The Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner Ian Logan Ethan, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Ian, Good morning Cati.

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Speaker 1: Now Ian, I understand that yesterday was the last day

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Speaker 1: or the deadline. I guess you'd say for anybody to

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Speaker 1: contest the results of the outcome of the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: election held on August twenty two. How did it all go?

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Speaker 1: Is anybody contesting any seats?

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Speaker 2: I haven't been made aware that anything's been lodged with

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Speaker 2: the Quarter of Disputed Returns And my understanding is no, Katie, Well,

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Speaker 2: is that normal?

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Speaker 1: Like, do we usually have a situation where where you know,

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Speaker 1: people do want to contest some of those electorates.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's quite often in the most marginal seats people

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Speaker 2: may look at the option there. I don't know whether

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Speaker 2: people recall at the twenty sixteen election in Normal Boy

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Speaker 2: as it was known then, the margin was only eight

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Speaker 2: votes and it was actually the Electoral Commission that lodged

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Speaker 2: a petition to the Court of Disputed Returns, and that

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Speaker 2: related to whether the elected candidate met the nomination criteria.

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Speaker 2: That actually didn't end up going to court because there

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Speaker 2: was insufficient evidence for that for the for the matter

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Speaker 2: to be taken to the to the to the court.

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Speaker 1: So it sounds asiety is a fairly normal process to

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Speaker 1: obviously for people to laudge those disputes if if they

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Speaker 1: feel as though they need to happen.

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Speaker 2: Look, Look, it's obviously it's part of the electoral process

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Speaker 2: and the electoral commission. The Electoral Commission is a returning

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Speaker 2: officer for elections, and if people have any issues in

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Speaker 2: relation to the administration of the election or any other

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Speaker 2: issue that they may feel has impacted the result of

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Speaker 2: the election, the proper process is for the Court of

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Speaker 2: disputed return is to review the election and see whether

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Speaker 2: there's any merit in the claims made.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So it's obvious that it is a fairly formal

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Speaker 1: sort of process, or it's a process that happens after

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Speaker 1: every election. I guess it's probably a process which is

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Speaker 1: followed nationwide by you know, whether you're talking about a

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Speaker 1: federal election or or a northern territory one.

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean, our margins are incredibly tight, Katie. I

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Speaker 2: mean for Barkley to be five and for Blaine to

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Speaker 2: be thirteen. I've been speaking to the other electoral commissioners

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Speaker 2: and they're saying that you know, any margin around fifty,

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Speaker 2: noting that their seats are much larger, would almost automatically

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Speaker 2: go to the Court of Disputed returns. But let me

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Speaker 2: say it's not as though you know that the parties

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Speaker 2: certainly haven't considered their options. That there have been significant

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Speaker 2: data requests since the election, as they've been like reviewing

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Speaker 2: every aspect of the election and looking at possible, you know,

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Speaker 2: mistakes of flaws that potentially could have you know, for

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Speaker 2: in the case of Berkley, only really had to impact

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Speaker 2: three votes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's quite phenomenal, isn't it, Especially like you say,

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Speaker 1: you know, inter state, if it's less than fifty, quite

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Speaker 1: often it does go through the Court of disputed returns.

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Speaker 1: Are you surprised that we're not sort of seeing, you know,

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Speaker 1: anything go that way following on from the territory election.

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Speaker 2: Nothing surprises me in territory politics, right, But look, you

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Speaker 2: know what I am pleased about is that, you know,

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Speaker 2: there's been a lot of scrutiny happening after the election

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Speaker 2: as parties have looked at, you know, different aspects of

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Speaker 2: what we've done in you know, particularly in relation to

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Speaker 2: postal voting that's been there have been quite quite a

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Speaker 2: number of issues in the media, and you know, I'm

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Speaker 2: very pleased that you know that they haven't been they

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Speaker 2: haven't been able to identify any flaws that we're given

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Speaker 2: grounds to take it to the Court of Disputed Returns.

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Speaker 1: And is there anything that you, as the electoral commissioner,

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Speaker 1: have sort of taken a look at since the election

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Speaker 1: and thought, okay, we might make some changes for next

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Speaker 1: time round.

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Speaker 2: Look, there certainly are. We're currently writing the election report

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Speaker 2: and that will that will be table in Parliament. After

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Speaker 2: every election, we look at our procedures, we look at

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Speaker 2: how the legislation and how the legislation operated and what

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Speaker 2: needs to be sort of modernized of what needs to

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Speaker 2: be changed. We're certainly looking at what other electoral commissions

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Speaker 2: are doing so that we keep tabs in relation to

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Speaker 2: what the standard is in Australia.

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Speaker 1: And in terms of opening the polls early, the early voting,

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Speaker 1: do you think that that should be something that I mean,

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Speaker 1: is it something that was quite successful in your eyes?

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Speaker 2: Look? Absolutely, I mean I think we had fifty six

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Speaker 2: percent of people vote early. It's very clear that Territorians

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Speaker 2: want to vote when it's convenient to them. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's very pleasing that there's no criteria now to early vote.

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Speaker 2: Anybody can early vote, and you know that certainly is

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Speaker 2: the is the way in the future that you know

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Speaker 2: we're going to have, We're going to see more and

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Speaker 2: more Territorians early vote.

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Speaker 1: Well again, I thought, you know, I just think it's

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Speaker 1: it makes sense to me to make it as easy

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Speaker 1: as possible for people to vote. You know, we want

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Speaker 1: as many people as possible to be out voting.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't think you can blame people for not

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Speaker 2: voting if it's difficult to vote, right, to make it

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Speaker 2: give amien for them. So, you know, we certainly tried

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Speaker 2: to have as many early voting centers as we Canley

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Speaker 2: shopping center. People are there, there's a lot of walk

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Speaker 2: through traffic, so you know, just you know, vote when

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Speaker 2: it's convenient to you.

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Speaker 1: Now, in terms of the postal votes, you mentioned this

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Speaker 1: a little while ago. Do you think that there could

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Speaker 1: be some things that we do differently when it comes

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Speaker 1: to postal voting down the track.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think some of the issues in regard to

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Speaker 2: postal vote is now we certainly had discussions with Australia

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Speaker 2: Post and the impact in regard to COVID that was

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Speaker 2: having in relation to their timetable that they've made it

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Speaker 2: very clear that there certainly are restrictions. We certainly came

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Speaker 2: out very early based on their advice, saying it was

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Speaker 2: going to be extremely difficult to service overseas elector because

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Speaker 2: you know, there's hardly any international flights and another number

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Speaker 2: of countries aren't accepting international mail. So you know, how

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Speaker 2: can this be improved? And you know, the obvious ways

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Speaker 2: to look at some kind of electronic voting option, but

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Speaker 2: that opens up a whole myriad of cybersecurity issues that

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Speaker 2: really need to be addressed.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I guess that's something that you know, realistically

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Speaker 1: would have to be happening Australia wide before we'd be

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Speaker 1: able to push through with it in the territory, wouldn't I.

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Speaker 2: He looked absolutely, And like all the Electoral commissioners get

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Speaker 2: together about two or three times a year, and that's

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Speaker 2: the push that we're sort of saying to in particularly

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Speaker 2: the Commonwealth government, there's no point developing in our seven

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Speaker 2: different systems that have different levels of security. You know,

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Speaker 2: let's just develop one system that can serve us all

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Speaker 2: elections and that can be to the highest standard of security.

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Speaker 2: So that you know, we know that there's some robustness

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Speaker 2: in the whole process.

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Speaker 1: But really, I mean, is that the way that we're

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Speaker 1: hitting that we do need to go to that online voting.

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean, I think there's a general trend towards

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Speaker 2: moving services online. I suppose we've been talking here in

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Speaker 2: relation to what's convenient, and I think for a lot

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Speaker 2: of people, the capacity to do it online is the

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Speaker 2: most convenient way. I think in the territory it's a

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Speaker 2: little bit different. You know, we've got a large segment

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Speaker 2: of the population who you know, unlikely to utilize those services.

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Speaker 2: So there's always going to be uh, you know, remote

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Speaker 2: polling and and we'll always have polling places in urban areas.

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Speaker 2: But look, I think it's some time down the track.

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Speaker 2: I think people will be watching great interest in relation

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Speaker 2: to what happens with the census next year and what

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Speaker 2: traction how many people use online, and if there are

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Speaker 2: any further issues that they that they face. But it's

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Speaker 2: all this learning. So I think I can say here

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Speaker 2: at the Electoral Commission, when we run all the enterprise

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Speaker 2: ballots for the Northern Territory government and we do it

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Speaker 2: for the private sector as well, and they're conducted online.

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Speaker 2: So I think it's going to be baby steps of

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Speaker 2: you know, moving into this, becoming comfortable in this space,

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Speaker 2: ensuring that the public or have confidence in any system

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Speaker 2: that we use, because that's the only way you can

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Speaker 2: use it, because if there's not public acceptance of the result,

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Speaker 2: then you know, elections don't work.

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Speaker 1: Yes, spot on, well Ian Logan Ethan the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Electoral Commissioner. Always good to chat with you. Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for your time today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, thank you