Division 2.—Provisions relating to the Scrutiny of Ballot-papers in Form 17.
Division 3.—Provisions relating to the Scrutiny of Postal Votes.
Division 4.—Mode of determining the result of the Scrutiny.
Division 5.—Recount of Ballot-papers.
Part XI.—Return of the Writ.
Part XII.—Miscellaneous.
In these Regulations, unless the contrary intention appears—
“Election” means an election of a member of the House of Representatives for the Northern Territory;
“Returning Officer” means the Returning Officer for the Northern Territory and includes an Assistant Returning Officer;
“The Chief Electoral Officer” means the Chief Electoral Officer for the Commonwealth;
“The Commonwealth Electoral Act” means the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918-1922;
“The Territory” means the Northern Territory
Any reference to a form shall be read as a reference to a form in the First Schedule.
Part II.—Administration.
There shall be a Returning Officer for the Territory who shall be charged with the duty of giving effect to the provisions of the Northern Territory Representation Act 1922, the Commonwealth Electoral Act in so far as it is applicable to the Territory, and these Regulations, within and for the Territory subject to the direction of the Chief Electoral Officer for the Commonwealth.
(1) Assistant Returning Officers may be appointed to exercise within or for any portion of the Territory, subject to the control of the Returning Officer, all the powers of the Returning Officer.
(2) Where the services of an Assistant Returning Officer are required for the purpose of an election only, the appointment may be made by the Chief Electoral Officer, and in such case shall terminate upon the completion of the election.
The Minister may appoint Electoral Registrars to keep the Rolls for any Subdivisions of the Territory, who shall be subject to the directions of the Returning Officer. The Returning Officer shall act as Registrar for any Subdivision of the Territory for which no Registrar has been appointed, and may by virtue of his office act as Registrar for any Subdivision during the absence from duty of the Registrar for the Subdivision.
(1) In the event of any vacancy occurring in the office of the Returning Officer, or in the office of Assistant Returning Officer or Registrar, or in the absence from duty of any such officer, the Chief Electoral Officer may appoint some person to perform the duties of the office during the period of the vacancy or absence.
(2) Any such appointment shall be temporary only, and shall not confer on the appointee any right or claim to be permanently appointed to the position.
A person appointed to be Returning Officer, Assistant Returning Officer, or Registrar shall be deemed to have been appointed as from the date specified in his appointment,) or, if no such date is specified, as from the date of his appointment.
No candidate shall be appointed an officer and if any officer becomes a candidate he shall thereby vacate his office.
A Registrar shall keep forms of claim for enrolment and transfer and such other forms as are prescribed, and shall without fee supply them to the public and assist the public in their proper use.
Part III.—Subdivisions and Polling Places.
The Territory shall be divided into Subdivisions, and the boundaries of each Subdivision shall be as specified by proclamation.
(1) The Minister may by notice in the Gazette appoint polling places and declare polling places to be the polling places for any specified Subdivision.
(2) The polling places for a Subdivision shall be those polling places which are declared by the Minister by Gazette notice to be the polling places for that Subdivision and for all electors who are enrolled for that Subdivision.
Part IV.—Electoral Rolls.
(1) There shall be a Roll of Electors for the Territory.
(2) There shall be a separate Roll for each Subdivision of the Territory, which may be in accordance with Form 1, and shall contain the particulars indicated therein.
(3) All the Subdivision Rolls shall together form the Roll for the Territory.
(1) The first Roll for the Territory shall be prepared as soon as practicable after the coming into operation of these Regulations, and may be prepared in the manner directed by proclamation.
(2) The provisions of regulations 34 (2), 38, and 40 (3) shall not apply in respect of the preparation of the first Roll prepared in pursuance of a Proclamation issued under the provisions of this regulation.
(3) In respect of the first election to be held under these Regulations, the following provisions shall apply in relation to the registration of claims for enrolment:—
(a) As regards any Subdivision for which a polling place is prescribed—the Registrar may register claims for enrolment received by him up to six o’clock in the afternoon of the fourteenth day before polling day;
(b) As regards any Subdivision for which no polling place is prescribed—the Registrar may register claims for enrolment received by him within two months after polling day, or within such further period as the Governor-General directs.
(1) The Rolls shall be printed or typewritten whenever the Minister so directs.
(2) Supplemental Rolls, setting out additions since the Rolls were last printed or typewritten, shall be prepared, and wherever practicable printed or typewritten, immediately previous to an election, and at such other times as the Minister directs.
(1) Copies of the latest printed or typewritten Roll and Supplemental Roll shall be open for public inspection at the office of the Returning Officer without fee, and shall be obtainable thereat and at such post offices in the Territory as the Returning Officer appoints, on payment of the price prescribed.
(2) The Roll kept by a Registrar shall be open for public inspection without fee at the office of the Registrar at all convenient times during his ordinary office hours.
The prices at which Rolls shall be sold shall be as follow:—
18. All officers in the service of the Territory, all police, and statistical officers, officers in the service of any local governing body, and all occupiers of habitations shall upon application furnish to the Returning Officer or to any officer acting under his direction all such information as he requires in connexion with the preparation, maintenance or revision of the Rolls.
Part V.—Qualifications and Disqualifications for Enrolment and for Voting.
Subject to the disqualification set out in this Part, all persons not under 21 years of age, whether male or female, married or unmarried—
(a) who have lived in Australia for six months continuously, and
(b) who are natural-born or naturalized subjects of the King,
shall be entitled to enrolment subject to the provisions of Part VI. of these Regulations.
All persons whose names are on the Roll for the Territory and whose real place of living is in the Territory shall, subject to the Commonwealth Electoral Act, the Northern Territory Representation Act 1922, and these Regulations, be entitled to vote at elections, but no person shall be entitled to vote more than once at any election.
No person who is of unsound mind, and no person attainted of treason, or who has been convicted and is under sentence for any offence punishable under the law of any part of the King’s Dominions by imprisonment for one year or longer, shall be entitled to have his name placed on or retained on any Roll or to vote at any election.
No aboriginal native of Australia, Asia, Africa, or the Islands of the Pacific (except New Zealand) shall be entitled to have his name placed on or retained on any Roll or to vote at any election unless so entitled under section 41 of the Constitution.*
Part VI.—Enrolment.
Division 1.—General.
(1) Names may be added to Rolls pursuant to claims for enrolment or transfer of enrolment.
(2) The form of claim for enrolment or transfer of enrolment, or notification of change of address within a Subdivision of the Territory by a person qualified for enrolment, may be in accordance with Form 2, and shall be signed by the claimant with his personal signature, and attested by an elector or person qualified to be an elector of the Territory who shall sign his name as witness in his own handwriting.
(3) Any person applying for correction of the entry on the Roll of his name or particulars of enrolment may apply in accordance with Form 2, or in such other form signed by the applicant, as the Registrar approves.
(1) Any person qualified for enrolment, who lives in a Subdivision of the Territory, and has so lived for a period of one month last past, shall be entitled to have his name placed on the Roll for the Subdivision in which he lives.
(2) Any elector whose name is on the Roll for any Subdivision of a Commonwealth Electoral Division or of the Territory and who lives in any other Subdivision, and has so lived for a period of one month last past, shall be entitled to have his name transferred to the Roll for the Subdivision in which he lives.
(3) No person is entitled to have his name placed on more than one Roll or upon any Roll other than the Roll for the Subdivision in which he lives.
(4) The validity of any enrolment shall not in any case be questioned on the ground that the person enrolled has not in fact lived in the Subdivision for a period of one month.
* See section 41 of the Constitution:—
41. No adult person who has or acquires a right to vote at elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of a State shall while the right continues be prevented by any law of the Commonwealth from voting at elections for either House of the Parliament of the Commonwealth.
25. (1) Every person who is entitled to have his name placed on the Roll for a Subdivision of the Territory whether by way of enrolment or transfer of enrolment, and whose name is not on the Roll, shall forthwith fill in and sign, in accordance with the directions printed thereon, a claim in Form 2, and send or deliver the claim to the Registrar for the Subdivision.
(2) Every person who is entitled to have his name placed on the Roll for a Subdivision of the Territory whether by way of enrolment or transfer of enrolment, and whose name is not on the Roll upon the expiration of twenty-one days from the date upon which he became so entitled, or at any subsequent date while he continues to be so entitled, shall be guilty of an offence unless he proves that his non-enrolment is not in consequence of his failure to send or deliver to the Registrar for the Subdivision for which he is entitled to be enrolled, a claim in Form 2 duly filled in and signed in accordance with the directions printed thereon.
Penalty: For a first offence, Ten shillings; and for any subsequent offence, Two pounds.
(3) Every person who changes his place of living from one address in a Subdivision of the Territory for which he is enrolled to another address in the Subdivision, and who, at any time after the expiration of twenty-one days from the date of making the change, has failed to notify the Registrar for the Subdivision in Form 2 of the new address, shall be guilty of an offence.
Penalty: For a first offence, Ten shillings; and for every subsequent offence, Two pounds.
Division 2.—Enforcement of Law in relation to Enrolment.
The Registrar shall, subject to such directions as he receives from the Returning Officer, make such inquiries from time to time as are practicable in order to ascertain the names of qualified persons who are entitled to enrolment for the Subdivision for which he keeps the Roll but are not enrolled therefor, and shall, if satisfied that a qualified person has failed to comply with the requirements of regulation 25 of these Regulations forthwith notify him of such failure in accordance with Form 8, and inform him that he may reply by declaration made and signed before any person who is an authorized witness for the purpose of voting by post under these Regulations, setting out any facts relevant to the matter, and that he has the option of having the matter dealt with either by the Returning Officer or by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction.
Any person to whom a notification has been sent pursuant to the last preceding regulation, who desires the matter to be dealt with by the Returning Officer, and who is prepared to abide by the decision of that officer may notify the Registrar in accordance with Form 9.
Upon the receipt from a person who has failed to comply with the requirements of regulation 25 of these Regulations of a notification consenting to the matter being dealt with by the Returning Officer and undertaking to abide by the decision of that officer the Registrar shall consider the statements contained in the declaration (if any) submitted by the person, make such further inquiry as he deems necessary, and, unless he decides to withdraw the case, transmit the declaration (if any) and notification, with a report as to the facts and his opinion thereon, to the Returning Officer.
(1) Subject to such directions as are issued by the Chief Electoral Officer, the Returning Officer shall, upon the receipt of a report from the Registrar in respect of an alleged contravention of regulation 25 of those Regulations consider all the facts, and if satisfied that the person concerned is in default or has contravened the provisions of the regulation, may make an order imposing upon that person a penalty not exceeding Ten shillings for a first offence, and not exceeding Two pounds for any subsequent offence, and notify the Registrar thereof and of the time allowed for payment.
(2) Any penalty imposed by the Returning Officer in pursuance of this regulation shall be a debt due to the Commonwealth, and in default of payment within the time allowed, may be recovered in accordance with the provisions of regulation 31 of these Regulations.
(3) The Chief Electoral Officer may review any order made by a Returning Officer in pursuance of this regulation, and may, if he is of opinion that the circumstances justify such action, remit the penalty imposed by the order.
The Registrar, upon receipt of advice from the Returning Officer that a penalty has been imposed upon any person for a contravention of regulation 25 of these Regulations, shall notify the person in accordance with Form 10.
(1) Any order made by a Returning Officer under regulation 29 of these Regulations imposing a penalty may be filed in any Court of Summary Jurisdiction, and thereupon the order shall have effect as if it were an Order of that Court.
(2) Subject to these Regulations, all laws of the Territory relating to the enforcement of Orders of Courts of Summary Jurisdiction in force in the place where the Court in which the Order is filed is situated shall, to the extent to which they are applicable, apply to all matters relating or incidental to, or in connexion with, the enforcement of the penalty specified in the Order so filed and to any process for the enforcement.
(3) On the application of the Returning Officer any Justice of the Peace having jurisdiction in the Territory may issue a warrant of execution, or other applicable process, for the purpose of the enforcement of the Order so filed.
(4) A warrant of execution or other applicable process may be in accordance with any form of warrant of execution or distress or other process applicable to the circumstances under any law in force in the Territory.
(5) Any form of warrant of execution, or other process, whether provided by these Regulations or by the law of the Territory may be varied according to the circumstances of the case, and no warrant of execution, or other process, shall be held to be invalid by reason of want of form.
(1) Where any person to whom a notification pursuant to regulation 26 of these Regulations has been sent fails, within the time allowed, to reply thereto, or does not within that time consent to the matter being dealt with by the Returning Officer, the Registrar shall, subject to such directions as he receives from the Returning Officer, if he is satisfied that that person has contravened regulation 25 of these Regulations, cause proceedings to be instituted against him in a Court of Summary Jurisdiction.
(2) If, in any case in which proceedings are instituted in a Court of Summary Jurisdiction, the Registrar has received from the person concerned a declaration in pursuance of regulation 26 of these Regulations he shall, as far as it is practicable and necessary for him to do so, inquire into the truth of the statements therein set out, and shall, unless he withdraws the prosecution, cause the declaration to be brought to the notice of the Court.
(3) The Court shall at the hearing of the case consider the declaration (whether the defendant is present or not) as if the matter therein set out had been given in evidence before it.
In any prosecution in respect of any contravention of regulation 25 of these Regulations relating to compulsory enrolment, the prosecuting officer may lodge with the Court a statutory declaration, or a declaration before a Justice of the Peace having jurisdiction in the Territory, in support of the charge, and the Court shall, at the hearing, consider the declaration (whether the prosecuting officer is present or not) as if the matter set out therein had been given in evidence before it.