GetUp! Push For Enrolment Online
The activist group GetUp! is taking legal action to push its case that would-be voters should be able to enrol on the internet after the Australian Electoral Commission said it would reject voters who used the group’s enrolment tool.
The commission has warned that voters who have changed address have until 8pm today to update their details.
The GetUp! enrolment website OzEnrol.com, launched last Friday, allowed people to fill in an enrolment form online, using their mouse or trackpad to sign their name.
But the commission said the “digitally constructed” signature was not allowed under electoral law, making such enrolments invalid.
Now GetUp! has written to the commission explaining that if two young people - named by the group only as Oliver and Sophie - who used the online tool are not included on the roll, the group will lodge a claim in the Federal Court to have them included.
The commission said last week that it would not accept “digitally constructed” signatures because of the Commonwealth Electoral Act’s requirement for enrolling voters to “fill in and sign a claim”. But GetUp! argues the Electronic Transactions Act allows for digital signatures in certain circumstances, including enrolment.
Amounting to a test case on the issue, this has potentially broader implications for the use of digital signatures on other documents.
An email poll of the group’s members found about 70 per cent in favour of heading to court.
“If we win, we’ll have strengthened our democracy in a landmark victory,” the message to members said. “Even if we don’t, this case takes the issue of reforming Australia’s antiquated electoral laws from the courts to the national headlines, and onto the priority list of the next government.”
The group pulled down the enrolment website after less than a day because of the commission’s warning over the validity of enrolments.
The group’s spokesman, Sam Mclean, said uncertainty about the signatures was an “important principle to clear up”, especially given the short period people have to enrol when an election is called. The deadline for new enrolments was on Monday, when the writ for the poll was issued.