Local Government (General) Regulation 2021

The Electoral Commissioner may approve procedures to facilitate voting by eligible electors at an election by means of technology assisted voting.

The approved procedures must provide—

for an eligible elector to register before voting by means of technology assisted voting, and

for the automatic registration of electors who are registered early voters (technology assisted voting) and the notification of those electors of that registration, and

for the making of a record of each eligible elector who has voted by means of technology assisted voting, and

for the authentication of the eligible elector’s vote, and

for the secrecy of the eligible elector’s vote, and

that a vote cast in accordance with the approved procedures be securely transmitted to the Electoral Commissioner and securely stored by the Electoral Commissioner until printed, and

that the method of technology assisted voting creates an image file in the form of a ballot-paper, for example a PDF, for each vote cast that is capable of being viewed or printed if required for the purposes of the scrutiny, and

the way the information about the votes is to be communicated to the returning officer for the area.

An image file of a ballot-paper created in accordance with the approved procedures does not need to be in or to the effect of Form 4, 5 or 6, as the case requires, or, when printed, create a ballot-paper of the same size or format as the ballot-papers printed in accordance with Division 6, so long as the vote cast by the eligible elector can be accurately determined.

The Electoral Commissioner may approve procedures under this section only if the Electoral Commissioner is satisfied that—

a class of electors, who in other circumstances would be unable to vote or would have difficulty voting, would benefit from the approval of the procedures, or

in relation to a trial of voting machines at one or more polling places—the trial would assist in determining whether the use of voting machines would improve the conduct of elections and benefit the electors using them.

The only limit on the power of the Electoral Commissioner to approve procedures under this section is that the pre-condition for approval set out in subsection (4) is met.

The approval of procedures under this section cannot be challenged, reviewed or called into question in proceedings before a court or tribunal except on the grounds that the approval exceeds the jurisdictional limit specified by subsection (5) for the approval of such procedures.

To avoid doubt, subsection (6) adopts the Electoral Act 2017, section 155(6).