As our country warms up for the 2010 Federal Election telephone voting will be available in 125 locations across Australia to enable electors who are blind or vision impaired to cast a secret vote.
On Friday 18 June 2010 amendments were passed to the Electoral Act that will allow 300,000 Australians who are blind or vision impaired to finally have a secret ballot in Federal Elections.
For the 2010 election, held on 21 August 2010, electors who are blind or vision impaired will have the option of attending an Australian Electoral Commission divisional office, where they can be connected to trained call centre operators for assistance completing the ballot papers.
Our Perron Centre in Victoria Park will be a pre-polling centre (PPC) offering confidential telephone voting to voters who are blind or vision impaired. The PPC will be located in the Guide Dog Discovery Centre and it will operate as a PPC from 9-13 and 16-21 August and then as a Polling Booth on Election Day, 21 August.
Clients should follow the steps below to cast their vote
- When you arrive to cast your telephone vote, an AEC official will mark off your name and escort you to a private area.
- They will telephone a call centre and arrange for a trained voting assistant to take your vote. The voting assistant will not know your name, and the AEC official will not be in the room when you are casting your vote.
- The voting assistant will read the ballot papers to you, and you will tell them your preferences. They will record your vote on the ballot papers and read it back to you. A second voting assistant will listen and watch to ensure that your vote is correctly recorded.
- When you've finished, the voting assistant will put the ballot papers into a ballot box. There will be a way to let the AEC official know when you are finished or if you need help.
This process will be available for two and a half weeks leading up to Election Day, and on Election Day. On average, it will take around 11 minutes to make a secret telephone vote.
Please note that the AEC officials and call centre voting assistants will not be able to provide you with any information about the candidates or political parties. So you will need to make sure that you have all the information you think you will need to make your vote beforehand.
Over the years, the Association for the Blind of WA - Guide Dogs WA has worked with both the Australian and the Western Australian Electoral Commissions to help achieve better outcomes for our clients.
The Association is particularly pleased to see this significant step forward by the Australian Electoral Commission and looks forward to effectively implementing these changes in the 2010 Federal Election.
Follow Us On Facebook