Two bills to enable the Australian Electoral Commission to directly enrol voters using a variety of data sources have passed through the House of Representatives. The Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Protecting Elector Participation) Bill 2012, which will allow the AEC to initiate a first enrolment, has also passed through the Senate, and the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Maintaining Address) Bill 2011, which will allow the AEC to update the information of voters who have changed address using the same data sources, is expected to be debated soon.
Writing in the Canberra Times in March, Rob Hoffman and the Audit’s Brian Costar argued that the legislation is a necessary step in enfranchising a large group of potential voters.
