5 FORMALITY OF VOTES
Part XVI, ‘The polling’,
Part XVIII, ‘The scrutiny’
Schedule 3, ‘Rules for the conduct of a preliminary scrutiny of declaration votes’
As a scrutineer, you have the right to challenge the admission or rejection of any ballot paper at the scrutiny. The grounds for a challenge may be the formality or informality of the ballot paper. You therefore need to know the difference between an informal vote and a formal vote. This chapter goes into some detail about the differences. Appendix 3 contains examples of how the formality of votes is determined.
Formality check at the scrutiny
A vote is recorded by marking squares on the ballot paper. The scrutiny of ballot papers has two stages:
- an initial formality check, where votes that do not satisfy certain criteria are excluded; and
- a subsequent examination of those votes that pass the formality check to determine which candidate has been elected.
If the polling place officials conducting the scrutiny are in doubt about the formality of a ballot paper they will put it in a separate pile. All ballot papers that have been put aside will be checked later by staff at the divisional office.
Casting a formal vote
House of Representatives
To cast a formal vote, a voter at a House of Representatives election:
- places the number
in the square on the ballot paper opposite the name of the candidate who gets their first preference; and - places consecutive numbers
(and so on, as needed), without repeating any number, in the squares opposite the names of the remaining candidates to indicate the order of preference for them.
A House of Representatives vote marked 
… is not formal. Any vote marked in this way will be rejected as informal.
Sample AEC election advertising
Senate group voting tickets
Squares above-the-line are provided for:
- incumbent independents that have advised the AEC of an intention to lodge a voting ticket; and
- groups that requested that their names be grouped at the time of nomination
who submit a preference statement or group voting ticket to the AEC within 48 hours after the close of nominations.
Within 48 hours after the close of nominations, a Senate group may lodge with the AEO for the state or territory a written statement setting out a preference order of all candidates in the election. This is referred to as a group voting ticket.
The preference ordering must be a fully formal vote—all candidates must be numbered. In addition, the candidates in the group lodging the statement must be ordered ahead of any other candidate.
The preference ordering may be specified in the form of a how-to-vote card.
A group may lodge up to three group voting tickets, provided that the preference order shown places the candidates in the group lodging the statement ahead of any other candidate, and gives the same order of preference for the members of the group on each ticket.
When a group lodges one or more group voting tickets, a square will be printed above-the-line on the Senate ballot paper. Voters wishing to vote according to the group voting ticket simply fill in that square with the number 1 and their preferences will be allocated according to the group voting ticket during the scrutiny process.
Where two tickets are lodged, half of the votes are allocated to each of the preference orders.
Where three tickets are lodged, one-third of the votes are allocated to each of the preference orders.
Booklets setting out copies of all group voting tickets that have been lodged in a state or territory are available at every polling place on election day. Early voting centres and interstate voting centres will also have copies of group voting tickets for all states and territories and they will be published on the AEC website.
Note: There are other forms of Senate voting tickets. These are described fully in the Candidate’s Handbook at www.aec.gov.au.
Senate
To cast a formal vote, a voter at a Senate election votes in one of two ways:
- above-the-line: by placing the number in one of the squares printed on the top of the ballot paper (this is referred to as a ticket vote); or
- below-the-line:by numbering the squares opposite the names of the candidates printed on the bottom half of the ballot paper as described above for a House of Representatives election.
Formality checks
There are two tests for formality of ballot papers. These are:
- whether the ballot paper is authentic and does not identify the voter; and
- whether the voter has performed his or her duty in marking the ballot paper sufficiently well for it to be accepted.
Authenticity tests
To be accepted as formal, a ballot paper:
- must be authenticated by the official mark or the initials of the issuing officer, or must, in the opinion of the DRO, be an authentic ballot paper;
- must not have any unauthorised writing on it that could identify the voter; and
- must, in the case of a declaration vote, have been enclosed in a declaration envelope.
Acceptable numbering
House of Representatives
A House of Representatives ballot paper is formal if:
- the number appears in the square opposite the name of one, and only one, candidate (the first preference);
- the other squares on the ballot paper have consecutive numbers, indicating an unbroken consecutive sequence of preferences;
- no number is repeated; and
- no more than one square (representing the last preference only) is left blank.
Ticks or crosses on a House of Representatives ballot paper will render it informal. However, a ballot paper that represents the required sequence by roman numerals (I, II, III, ...) or by ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, .) or by letters (A, B, C, .) can be accepted as formal.
Senate
The formality tests for Senate ballot papers are more complicated. A Senate vote can be recorded either by numbering preferences (below-the-line on the ballot paper) or by casting a ticket vote (above-the-line on the ballot paper).
Also, a ballot paper may be accepted as formal even where the voter has marked both above and below the line.
This means that three distinct cases may arise.
Case 1: Ticket vote
Requirement: Place the number in one, and only one, of the squares printed above-the-line.
Allowances:Specific allowance is made for voters who deviate slightly from this requirement. A ballot paper will be formal if it has a preference mark in one, and only one, of the squares printed above-the-line. A preference mark is defined as a tick, a cross, or the number 1.
Examples:If 
or 
are placed in the ticket voting squares, the ballot paper on both occasions will be formal since a preference mark appears in one, and only one, square. However, 
or 
, will be informal since in both of these examples a preference mark appears in two squares.
Case 2: Preferential vote
Requirement: Numbering all the squares below the line on the ballot paper, using consecutive numbers starting with without repeating any numbers.
Allowances: In this case, specific allowance is again made for voters who may have difficulty in fulfilling the requirement.
A ballot paper will be formal if:
- a first preference is shown by the number marked in the square opposite the name of one, and only one, candidate; and
- if there are 10 or more candidates, not less than 90 per cent of the squares opposite the names of candidates on the ballot paper are numbered as required, or would be if no more than three numbers were changed; or
- if there are nine or fewer candidates, all squares opposite the names of candidates on the ballot paper (or all but one of these squares with the last square left blank) are numbered as required, or would be if not more than two numbers were changed.
Once again, roman numerals or ordinal numbers or letters can be used without making a ballot paper informal.
In a Senate election with 20 candidates, a ballot paper will be formal if it shows a first preference for one, and only one candidate, and has on it either:
- the numbers 1 to 18 (90 per cent of 20), none of which is repeated; or
- numbers which, if up to three of them were changed, would be the numbers 1 to 18 without repetitions.
In the following three examples, the vote would be formal. The errors are underlined and the reason for the decision is given.
Reason: Despite the mistakes at the end, this vote is formal because 1 appears only once, and the numbers 1 to 18 appear.
Reason: If the second 2 had been an 18, the second 12 had been a 19, and the 25 at the end a 20, the required numbers 1 to 18 would have been present. Note that changing the 25 to an 18 would have led to the numbers 1 to 18 being on the ballot paper, but would not have removed the repetitions of the numbers 2 and 12. (Note that, while formal, this vote would become an exhausted vote after the first preference.)
Reason: If the second 2 had been a 16, the second 3 a 17 and the second 4 an 18, the numbers 1 to 18 would have been present. The last two mistakes, and , are irrelevant in this case. (Like the previous example, this vote, while formal, would exhaust after the first preference.)
In the next three examples, however, the vote will be informal:
Reason: The number appears twice.
Reason: There is no way in which changing only three of the numbers on this ballot paper could have produced the numbers 1 to 18.
Reason: There must be numbers in at least 90 per cent of the squares, which is at least 18 squares for this example.
The numbers on a ballot paper are never actually changed. In doing the formality check, the officer merely considers whether the sequence of numbers on the ballot paper is the correct one, or whether the correct sequence could have appeared on the ballot paper if the elector had put different numbers in up to three of the squares.
Case 3: The voter has tried to record both a ticket vote above-the-line and a preferential vote below-the-line on the ballot paper.
This case can be broken down into three distinct situations:
- Where the ticket vote and the preferentially numbered vote would each have been informal if recorded on its own, the ballot paper is informal.
- Where the ticket vote would have been formal if recorded on its own, but the preferentially numbered vote would have been informal if recorded on its own, the ballot paper is formal and is treated as if preferential numbering had not been attempted.
- Conversely, where the preferentially numbered vote would have been formal if recorded on its own but the ticket vote would have been informal if recorded on its own, the ballot paper is formal and is treated as if the ticket vote had not been attempted.
- Where the ticket vote and the preferentially numbered vote each would have been formal if recorded on their own, the ballot paper is formal and is treated as if the ticket vote had not been attempted.
- Note that correct preferential numbering prevails over a correct ticket vote—but note that incorrect (but nevertheless formal) preferential numbering also prevails over a correct ticket vote.
