The Australian Government has launched the Inquiry into the conduct of the 2016 Federal Election, which will be led by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters.
Vision Australia would like to hear from you about how accessible you think the voting experience was at the recent federal election, and whether you have any recommendations for improving this service. Your experiences will be used to inform our submission to the Inquiry, and help to promote the voting rights of the blindness and low vision community.
Towards a more-inclusive voting future
Voters who are blind or have low vision had a choice of two options at this election: assisted voting at the polling place, or telephone voting assisted by a call centre operator along with an independent verifier to witness the process.
Vision Australia believes the Federal Government and the Australian Electoral Commission should improve this service, which is why it was included as one of five priorities in our 2016 Federal Election campaign.
We know voting at elections can be made more accessible, in a way that guarantees your vote is cast both independently and in complete secrecy. We also think you should have the same level of assurance as your sighted peers, that your vote has been cast as intended.
By establishing the iVote system, NSW became the national leader on accessible voting. Developed in response to the needs of people with vision impairments, it benefits a wide range of voters including: people with disability, those with restricted mobility or reading difficulties, people living in remote areas, or who are interstate or overseas on polling day.
iVote is the benchmark for independence, accessibility and real-time verification and was used by 284,000 voters at the last NSW election. We want to see an equivalent system available at all state and federal elections – but what do you think?
Failure to vote letter
Are you a Queensland voter who received a failure to vote letter? Vision Australia is aware that around 400 Queensland voters who used the Blind and Low Vision telephone voting service at this election, mistakenly received penalty notices that stated they had not voted. The Australian Electoral Commission has been contacting affected voters to let them know it was a processing error and that they should disregard the notice.
Share your thoughts with us
We’d like to hear about your experiences both good and bad. Do you have any other ideas about how to make voting better for the blindness and low vision community?
For further information or to send your feedback, please email [email protected], with a subject heading of ‘Election Inquiry’ no later than Tuesday, 25 October.
The Terms of Reference for this Inquiry is available online and if you’d like to make an individual submission the closing date is 1 November.