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Speaker 1: Now we know that. Well, I think you'd have to

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Speaker 1: be living under a rock to not know that the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory election was held just weeks ago. It feels

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Speaker 1: like a long long time ago now that Territorians went

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Speaker 1: to the polls for the NT election. But as we know,

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Speaker 1: there are penalties for those who are on the electoral

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Speaker 1: roll and didn't turn out to cast their vote, with

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Speaker 1: failure to vote notices now being sent out and joining

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Speaker 1: us on the line to tell us a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about the situation is the Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner

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Speaker 1: Kirsten Kelly, Good morning to you, Commissioner.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Now, how many people didn't cast their vote at the

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Speaker 1: NT election.

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Speaker 2: So at the close of roles we had one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty hundred and fifty people on the roll and

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Speaker 2: we had one hundred and four thousand, nine hundred and

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Speaker 2: one people vote in the election. So there is around

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand people that didn't didn't vote cast a vote

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Speaker 2: in the twenty four election.

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Speaker 1: Well, they are I mean, they're big numbers. Do we

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Speaker 1: know if there's certain sort of areas where people may

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Speaker 1: be didn't turn out as heavily to vote as what

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Speaker 1: they may have previously.

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Speaker 2: So across all the divisions in the territory, there was

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Speaker 2: a decline in participation from the twenty twenty election, with

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Speaker 2: the exception of the Daily division, which saw a point

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Speaker 2: three increase in participation. So, as I mentioned throughout the

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Speaker 2: election that our role is the healthiest it's ever been

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Speaker 2: at ninety three percent. So since twenty twenty, we have

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Speaker 2: an additional twelve thousand people on the electoral role, and

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Speaker 2: that doesn't equate to population increase, so there's more people

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Speaker 2: in roll. So we're seeing that through participation potentially declining

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Speaker 2: as well, and then we're seeing an increase in apparent

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Speaker 2: value to vote. Notice it's being sent.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So just took us through those numbers again,

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Speaker 1: So how many are on the electoral role and how

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Speaker 1: many actually turned.

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Speaker 2: Up so on the electoral role, So at the close

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Speaker 2: of roles for the election, which was on the first

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Speaker 2: of August, there was one hundred and fifty two two

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty people on the role that we were

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Speaker 2: required to participate in the election, and so one hundred

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Speaker 2: and four thousand, nine hundred and one people cast a

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Speaker 2: vote in the election. So that doesn't include people who

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Speaker 2: participated by letting us know that they weren't able to

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Speaker 2: vote because they may have been away. So all of

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Speaker 2: these numbers get reduced before we issue the apparent failure

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Speaker 2: to vote notices to people. So there is a decline,

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Speaker 2: and we do look at locations see geographic location of voters.

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Speaker 2: We look at the age of electors, so we remove

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Speaker 2: electors over seventy from that apparent value to note list

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Speaker 2: geographic locations where mailing services may not be the most

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Speaker 2: reliable or accessible because we do send the infringement notices

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Speaker 2: through the mail.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, But so it does sound as though notices

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Speaker 1: are now being sent out. Is that correct?

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Speaker 2: That's correct. So on from the twenty eighth of October,

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Speaker 2: over twenty one thousand notices were sent to electors by post.

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Speaker 1: And what happens now with that process, like, do people

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Speaker 1: either have to prove why they couldn't vote or either

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Speaker 1: that or they've got a front up and they've got

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Speaker 1: to pay the fine.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a few options when a person receives

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Speaker 2: that letter, So they've got until the twenty fifth of

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Speaker 2: November to reply to that notice, and there is a

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Speaker 2: reply paid envelope in that correspondence for them to send

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Speaker 2: back their response. So the options if you received that

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Speaker 2: correspondents are to let us know in writing that you voted.

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Speaker 2: So sometimes people do vote and they might have been

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Speaker 2: an administrative error and incorrectly marked off the role. So

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Speaker 2: if we're provided with details of where the person did vote,

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Speaker 2: we can investigate that an elector doesn't vote, but they

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Speaker 2: believe they have a reason for not voting, and they

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Speaker 2: provide this reason, then the Commission will review that reason

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Speaker 2: and no further action will be taken if it's deemed sufficient,

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Speaker 2: or they can pay the twenty five dollars excreation fee.

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Speaker 1: Well, look, I think if you know, if you don't

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Speaker 1: turn up to vote, you don't have a valid reason.

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Speaker 1: I think everybody should exercise their democratic rite and get

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Speaker 1: out there and make sure that they do vote. Otherwise,

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Speaker 1: don't complain about decisions that the government of the day

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Speaker 1: is making. That's my humble opinion, Commissioner, But I don't

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Speaker 1: expect you to weigh it on that. Tell me in

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Speaker 1: terms of now sort of the wash up following on

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Speaker 1: from the election. We know that those fines or those

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Speaker 1: notices are being sent out and people will have to

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Speaker 1: pay those fines if they don't have a valid reason

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Speaker 1: to not have voted. But what where are things out

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Speaker 1: like in terms of sort of looking at the wash

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Speaker 1: up following on from the election, and is there a

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Speaker 1: review following on from the election more broadly about how

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Speaker 1: things worked well and maybe the things that didn't work

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Speaker 1: so well. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely So during the electionary May this year, we released

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Speaker 2: a service plan about how the election was going to

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Speaker 2: be delivered by the Commission, So as part of our

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Speaker 2: evaluation post election, we'll review our service delivery and the

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Speaker 2: elements of the Electoral Act to inform our report. And

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Speaker 2: you may say all our election reports that they're quite

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Speaker 2: in depth and available on the Antech website, and they

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Speaker 2: do include recommendation, so they may be operational things that

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Speaker 2: we look at adjusting internally and how we run election,

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Speaker 2: but they also recommend electoral reforms. So one that we

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Speaker 2: have been advocating at the Commission for is an increase

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Speaker 2: in that infringement notice fine to fifty dollars, which it

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Speaker 2: used to be for local government elections, so with and

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Speaker 2: they both for local government and legis of Assembly, it's

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Speaker 2: now twenty five dollars. So looking to advocate for an

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Speaker 2: increase in that infringement.

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Speaker 1: Notice, I reckon it's a good idea. I think, you know,

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Speaker 1: if I actually think if you're not going to be

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Speaker 1: bothered to turn up to vote, well, fair enough if

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Speaker 1: you get a fine. So you guys are actually advocating

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Speaker 1: for that that increase.

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Speaker 2: That's correct. So it has did appear in the twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty one Local Government election report as a recommendation and

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Speaker 2: it's something will certainly look to continue to advocate for

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Speaker 2: as looking for ways to support participation in elections.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, fair enough. And is there anything else that you

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Speaker 1: know that has sort of stood out post election that

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Speaker 1: you think, all right, we might need to look at

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Speaker 1: some changes in these areas.

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Speaker 2: So we are we will be reaching out in the

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Speaker 2: coming months and talking to stakeholders, particularly electoral participants, and

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Speaker 2: looking at matters which include campaigning prohibsion zones and things

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Speaker 2: like that, just to get feedback from them as well

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Speaker 2: as as we shape any recommendations in the election report.

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Speaker 2: So certainly looking at those areas, looking at ways that

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Speaker 2: we can improve service delivery, working with stakeholders as well

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Speaker 2: postal services to see how we can improve services. So

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Speaker 2: it is quite a comprehensive review as well as looking

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Speaker 2: at our systems performance as well to see if we

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Speaker 2: can improve systems to support the whole service delivery and elections.

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Speaker 1: One of the things I've noticed that's being discussed sort

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Speaker 1: of a little bit more was discussed a little I

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Speaker 1: supose throughout our election campaign, but it was discussed quite extensively.

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Speaker 1: I noted in watching the coverage of the queenslande election

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Speaker 1: as well, and that is the number of days prior

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Speaker 1: to the actual election that people can go on early votes.

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Speaker 1: So there was discussion about whether it should be less

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Speaker 1: than two weeks or whether it should continue to be

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Speaker 1: two weeks. Is that something that the Commission is going

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Speaker 1: to have a closer look at, So we'll say we.

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Speaker 2: Again look at those things with regards to how people

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Speaker 2: participate over those two weeks. We did see in the

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Speaker 2: two week early voting it was very popular and obviously

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Speaker 2: having two weeks opportunity, I think it was well over

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Speaker 2: sixty thousand compared to I think twenty three thousand on

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Speaker 2: election day, and obviously there's more opportunity. But I think

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Speaker 2: that convenience voting is well received from participants, so we

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Speaker 2: would need to have a look at that as well,

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Speaker 2: and also the territory is very big, one point three

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Speaker 2: five million square kilometers, so we provide a service where

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Speaker 2: there's ten people or more on the electoral role, so

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Speaker 2: that two weeks of early voting allows us to get

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Speaker 2: around the territory and provide that service. So there's a

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Speaker 2: lot to consider if there wasn't any changes to the

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Speaker 2: period of time for early voting.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a really good point. Like I

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Speaker 1: find it very convenient, and I'll put the question out

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Speaker 1: there to our listeners. I'm sure that they will give

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Speaker 1: us their opinions. But yeah, I do think it's good

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Speaker 1: to enable that convenience and hopefully it means that if

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Speaker 1: it's convenient for people to get out there and vote,

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Speaker 1: that they'll go and do so.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Commissioner, I always appreciate your time. Thank you

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Speaker 1: very much for having your chat with me this.

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Speaker 2: Morning, anytime at all, Katie, have a great day.

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Speaker 1: Thank you you too,