Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918

Notwithstanding any arrangement in force under section 224, a visit under that section to a patient in a hospital shall not be made if the presiding officer is informed by a registered medical practitioner or a member of the staff of the hospital that such a visit is forbidden, on medical grounds, by a registered medical practitioner.

Literature relating to an election or political parties may be supplied to the general office of a hospital to which section 224 applies, and any literature so supplied shall be made available on request to patients entitled to vote under that section.

A presiding officer who visits a patient under section 224 must:

advise the patient that literature relating to the election supplied by candidates or political parties is available; and

give to the patient any such literature that the patient requests.

So far as is practicable, a vote under section 224 shall be taken as if it were taken under the other provisions of this Act (including such of those provisions as relate to absent voting) and, in particular, in the application of this Act for the purposes of subsection 224(5), this Act has effect as if:

a person who, with the approval of an appropriate person on the staff of the hospital, enters or remains in a room, ward or other place in the hospital at a time when, under that subsection, it is to be treated as if it were a part of a polling booth were, for the purposes of section 348, doing so by permission of the presiding officer there present;

paragraph 233(a) were omitted and the following paragraph were substituted:

paragraph 233(c) were omitted; and

the words “enter an unoccupied compartment of the booth with the voter, and” were omitted from subsection 234(1).

Subject to subsection (2A), subsections 340(1) and (1A) and 341(1) apply in relation to a hospital that is a polling place as if the references in those subsections to a polling booth were references to the hospital.

Where an elector has voted under section 224 in an election, any postal ballot paper received by the Divisional Returning Officer that is, or that purports to be, a postal ballot paper of the voter shall not be admitted in the scrutiny in relation to the election.

The Divisional Returning Officer for a Division must cause to be published on the Electoral Commission’s website, and in any other way the Divisional Returning Officer considers appropriate, a notice specifying:

the hospitals in the Division that are polling places; and

the periods during which votes will be taken under section 224 at each hospital.

The notice must be published not later than 4 pm on the day before polling day.

As far as is reasonably practicable, votes taken under section 224 shall be taken on the day or days and at the time or times specified in the relevant notice under subsection (7), but any failure to take those votes in that manner does not invalidate the result of the election.