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ACT election: How to vote electronically

Matthew Raggatt

​Nearly a third of Canberra citizens would cast their vote electronically in this year's ACT poll if the trends across past elections continued.

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How to vote electronically at the ACT election

ACT Electoral Commissioner Phil Green shows you how to cast an electronic vote.

With a census-style attack not possible due to the model's secure local area network – no internet is used – and 138 electric booths to choose from, a record number of residents could choose to use a keypad rather than a pencil this time.

But ACT Electoral Commissioner Phil Green, who has overseen every electronic voting poll since the ACT's nation-leading introduction in 2001, said pre-poll numbers would be the key factor as to whether take-up of the easy-to-use digital mode cracked 30 per cent. It hit 26 per cent in 2012.

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"The Australian Electoral Commission said [Canberra] pre-poll numbers have about plateaued," he said, referring to the most recent federal votes.

There will be 23 electronic voting booths at each of the six pre-polling centres, with two in Civic and one in each of the other major town centres. Voters can also vote electronically at these six centres on October 15, but Mr Green said the majority of residents on election day usually chose to vote closer to home at a suburban polling centre. Electronic voting is the default method at the six centres, but people can choose to receive a ballot paper, he said.

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The Canberra Times was given a test drive of one of the booths on Friday. They have a wider screen than in 2012 but it's for looking not touching, with a keypad allowing you to pick your order of candidates and move through the various screen pages.

Voters will first have their names checked off by election officials as usual, before receiving a card with a barcode on it. This barcode is scanned by the voter, who can choose from one of 12 languages (or the single booth with headphones at each centre if they have a visual impairment).

The voter can then choose their order of candidates by moving up, down, left or right with the keypad and pressing select. Numbers appear in sequence, with no need (or ability) to type the number itself.

At least five candidates should be chosen, but you can number all the squares if you wish.

"It's not necessarily faster than using paper," Mr Green said. "It makes sure numbers are correct, and easy to read. Some people's handwriting is not easy to work out."

Voters then scan the barcode again and submit their vote. The barcode should then be returned.

An informal vote where no boxes are numbered can, after some "are you sure" warnings, be submitted, consistent with electoral law.

All votes are saved instantly in a connected locked server on site. The data from these six servers is moved, via CD-ROM, to a master server at Elections ACT headquarters after polls close on October 15.

The electoral rolls closed on Friday night. There were nearly 283,000 people enrolled to vote as of Thursday night.

Note: The video displays a test example which includes created names.