Early voting for the South Australian Voice to Parliament has begun!!
These elections are the first of their kind, electing the first representatives to form the six Local Voices within the state - two representatives of which from each region will form the State Voice to Parliament
If you want more info on these elections - you can check out our previous post.
Given that this is the first time an election like this has been run, we thought we’d go over how exactly voting will work.
When you rock up to a polling location the process will be much the same as any other State or Federal election.
You’ll queue up to get inside and a polling booth worker will ask for your name to find you on the electoral roll in front of them.
They’ll confirm your details and give you a ballot for the region you’re enrolled in, which they’ll inital in the circle in the top left corner, and a pencil.
They’ll then give you instructions on how to fill out your ballot correctly, and send you over to a booth to cast your vote.
The ballots look slightly different from region to region - they’re all formatted like the example ballot below, but each is a different colour and length (depending on the amount of candidates).
Image: Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA)
How do I fill out the ballot?
In SA Voice Elections you vote by numbering the candidates according to your preference - with ‘1’ being the candidate you would most like to have represent you. You can number as many boxes as you like, but in order for your vote to be counted you need to indicate at least one preference.
(This is called preferential voting - which is what we use within Australia for State, Federal and Local Government elections. Numbering more than one box means that if your most preffered candidate doesn’t get enough votes, yours will transfer to your second preference!)
As always, we encourage you to have a look at your ballot once you’ve filled in the boxes to make sure you haven’t doubled up or missed any numbers to ensure all your preferences can be counted!
Then, just like other in person elections, you’ll fold your ballot and pop it in a ballot box on your way out!
If you want to see what the ballot for your region looks like ahead of time, have a look on the Electoral Commission of South Australia’s website.
