Introduction

For the first time, Australian Defence Force and Defence civilian personnel deployed on operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands, had the opportunity to take part in a secure electronic voting trial undertaken by Defence and the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) for the 2007 federal election.

The trial followed a recommendation on electronic voting by the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM). The provision of electronically assisted voting was granted as a trial only for the 2007 federal election by the JSCEM.
Information on the trial is set out below.

Background

In its review of the 2004 election, the JSCEM considered submissions regarding electronic voting for Defence personnel due to the difficulties in voting while deployed overseas.

The JSCEM recommended that electronic voting be trialled at the next federal election for Defence personnel deployed in certain locations where there was access to secure Defence computing and communication facilities.

The Government supported the trial and provided appropriate funding to the AEC.

Legislation

The Electoral and Referendum Legislation Amendment Act (2007) subsequently passed into law in March 2007.

The same legislation also provided for electors who are blind or have low vision to have an electronically assisted secret vote, with a trial being conducted in 29 sites around Australia.  Details for this site are here.

Security

The electronic voting system underwent rigorous testing to make sure that the system was robust and met all Defence, AEC security and data integrity standards prior to its use in the 2007 federal election.  You can see the Audit Report here.

Defence’s secure satellite and ground-based communication and information technology infrastructure was used to transmit encrypted electronic voting data straight back to the AEC.

The secure Defence systems met the highest national security and privacy standards. Defence personnel casting their votes could be confident that no person could view or manipulate their electronic votes.

The voting process

ADF personnel needed to pre-register with the AEC as a Remote Electronic Voter (REV). ADF personnel had to be correctly enrolled for their REV registration to be accepted.

Once a vote had been cast, a personal receipt was generated. ADF members had the ability to verify online whether their vote had been successfully cast using their personal receipt.

The way the system works

Remote electronic voting has the potential to provide a more effective voting service than traditional means by reducing the logistical overhead of managing paper-based ballots in remote overseas operational locations.

The secure Defence information technology system was used as the carrier for the electronic voting data transmission. The system was fully encrypted and met national security and privacy standards.

The data was transmitted straight to the AEC through a secure gateway. No- one in Defence was able to view the data or the votes that had been cast.

If there had been any technical difficulties with the electronic voting trial, Defence personnel could have  still cast their votes as paper-based postal votes, which were also sent to all registered electronic voting trial participants.

Trial locations

Electronic voting trials took place during the 2007 federal election for ADF personnel and Defence civilians on operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands for personnel who had the following AFPO numbers for their postal address.

Iraq AFPO 19 or 20
Afghanistan AFPO 13 or 14
Timor Leste AFPO 5
Solomon Islands AFPO 11
Ships and submarines were excluded from the trial

Voters who were not in a trial location

Other ADF and Defence personnel who could not access a secure computer terminal or were not in a trial location could apply to the AEC to register as a General Postal Voter.