Australian Electoral Commission

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Australian Electoral Commission, or the AEC, is the federal government agency in charge of organising and supervising federal elections. Local and state elections are overseen by electoral authorities of each state and territory.

The Australian Electoral Commission also maintains the Commonwealth Electoral Roll. Under the Joint Roll Arrangements with a number of states and territories, the AEC also maintains the electoral rolls of the states and territories other than Western Australia.

It also plays a leading role in electoral education.

1 History and Structure
2 Responsibilites
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History and Structure

The AEC was first established in 1902, as a branch of the Department of Home Affairs. In 1973 it became the Australian Electoral Office, a name it retained until February 21, 1984 when it became the Australian Electoral Commission, a Commonwealth statutory authority.

The AEC consists of a Chairman (a Judge or a retired Judge of the Federal Court), the Electoral Commissioner and a non-judicial member (usually the Australian Statistician). The Electoral Commissioner has the powers of a Secretary of a Department under the Public Service Act 1999 and the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1998. The Chairperson and the third, non-judicial member both hold their offices on a part-time basis.

The AEC has a Central Office in Canberra and Head Offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Each federal electorate has a Divisional Returning Officer responsible for administration of House of Representatives elections within their division. Each State also has an Australian Electoral Officer responsible for administration of Senate elections.

[edit] Responsibilites

The AEC's major responsibilities are to run federal elections, by-elections and referendums. Election Rolls must always be up-to-date to run these votes, and the AEC must also follow up electors who fail to vote and publish detailed election results. The AEC is answerable to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters of the Parliament of Australia, and must report on how elections were carried out and the success of the elections in general.

In 1984 a change to the Commonwealth Electoral Act allowed for the grace period after an election is called before the electoral rolls are closed was extended to seven days. Many people either enrol or change their enrolment details in this period. Prior to the 2004 federal election there were 423,993 changes to enrolment were processed in the close of roll period; of these, 78,816 were new enrolments and 225,314 were changes of address.^[1]

The AEC also plays a major role in electoral education, aiming to educate citizens about the electoral process by which representitives are elected, and by which the constitution is changed (referendums).