[LINK] added voters

[Jan Whitaker]

Court decision adds 57,732 voters

August 18, 2010 - 6:19PM

Almost 60,000 extra Australians will be able to vote at Saturday's 
federal election following a landmark court decision, the Australian 
Electoral Commission (AEC) says.

Earlier this month, the High Court overturned amendments introduced 
by the Howard government in 2006 tightening the electoral enrolment 
requirements for new and existing voters.

The tighter rules meant new voters - mostly those had just turned 18 
- had to be enrolled by 8pm on the day the election writs were 
issued, instead of seven days later.

The decision was originally believed to have allowed an additional 
100,000 voters to go to the ballot box this weekend, but the AEC said 
on Wednesday that after processing, the figure was actually 57,732.

The revised total number of Australians enrolled to vote is now 
14,088,260, compared to the previous total of 14,030,528 before the 
High Court handed down its findings.

The AEC said a further 40,408 voters had their existing enrolment 
details updated, as a result of lobby group GetUp's legal challenge.

Overall, 143,728 net additions to the electoral roll have been made 
since the election was called last month.

A net total of 443,187 electors have been added to the roll since the 
close of rolls for the 2007 federal election, when 13,645,073 people 
were enrolled to vote.

This story was found at: 
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/court-decision-adds-57732-voters-20100818-12ex4.html 




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

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