This Saturday, Queensland will decide whether or not to give the Newman government another stab in office. Interestingly, it will also be the first time that Australians are required to show proof-of-identity to cast an ordinary vote. If you live in Queensland, you will need to produce one of the following types of ID to quickly cast your ballot.
ID picture from Shutterstock
In an apparent bid to stop voter fraud, the Queensland government introduced an Electoral Reform Amendment Bill into parliament last year. The new law requires electors to prove their identity before casting an ordinary vote at the Queensland election. (That is, a vote where the elector is handed a ballot paper and the completed ballot paper is placed directly into the ballot box.)
Thankfully, this doesn’t mean that you need to own a drivers licence or proof-of-age card. Approved ID also includes the following:
- current Australian passport
- Voter Information Letter issued by the Commission
- recent document evidencing electoral enrolment
- an identification card issued by the Commonwealth or State evidencing the person’s entitlement to a financial benefit (examples: A Commonwealth seniors health card, health care card, Medicare card, pensioner concession card or repatriation health card)
- a recent account or notice issued by a local government or a public utility provider (examples: a council rates notice, electricity account statement, gas account statement or water bill)
- a recent account statement, current account card or current credit card issued by a financial institution
- a recent account statement issued by a carriage service provider as defined under the Telecommunications Act 1997 (examples: a telephone bill or internet bill)
- a recent notice of assessment issued under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997
That’s a pretty exhaustive list of acceptable documents. If for some reason you are unable to provide ID on the day, you will still be allowed to vote: however, you will need to complete a declaration of your details, a more time-consuming process similar to absent and silent votes.
In short, as long as you remember to bring your wallet along with your sausage-sizzle money, there should be no problem. Voting booths open Saturday 31 January at 8:00am and close at approximately 6:00pm.
Comments
4 responses to “Reminder: You Need To Show ID To Vote In This Weekend’s Queensland Election”
Has there been a significant outbreak of voter fraud that have has been deciding elections? Or is this an early attempt by the Queensland government to attempt to disenfranchise voters?
Moderator: Why are every one of my posts delayed for approval by a moderator? Can we please remove that?
Voter fraud is a myth. It’s just a canard so threatened incumbents can increase the friction involved with voting, to make it just that little bit more restrictive and inconvenient.
indeed it is (a myth). This was basically brought in to disenfranchise those most likely to vote progressive (ie not LNP), being that they are usually indigenous, under-25, unemployed etc etc all people who may not have the requisite photo ID. The disingenuous part is that most items on the list that are acceptable as ID wouldn’t be acceptable even to get a uni student card, so don’t prove your identification anyway. Just the usual political bullshit to waste everyones time and add unnecessary layers of beauracracy.
Wa elections there was some boo boos with votes.
But I don’t see why the other posters are so negative. Wow they want to keep it all a ok.
I don’t see how id and they let you use many forms is some way of making it harder to vote. They want you to vote. Plus voting is the law. Maybe it’s a way to make people vote.