Why is this a single box people have to write in, rather than two boxes with "yes" or "no" that the voter has to tick, cross, fill in to select?
What if people write yes/no in their own language.
Honestly this set up does seem dumb and leaves so much to for error.
i tend to agree, the instructions are pretty simple, but lets face it some of us have freaking terrible handwriting (and some physically cant due to various disabilities etc). 2 boxes would have been the most foolproof method
An AEC spokesperson said that was because on many forms, a cross represents a check mark, which can indicate yes.
"It therefore leaves it open to interpretation or challenge by a scrutineer," the spokesperson said.
The AEC said the provision had been in place since 1988, throughout federal elections and referendums, and was the accepted legal advice.
"This is not new," a spokesperson said.
"The AEC does not have any discretion to simply ignore savings provisions. They are a long-standing legislative requirement."
The spokesperson said in the 1999 referendum, the rate of informal votes was just 0.86 per cent, and of those, many would not have been related to ticks and crosses.
It expected the "vast, vast majority" of voters would follow the instructions.
All sounds fairly reasonable to me.
If the instructions say to write yes or no and you put a tick or a cross, you’re too dumb for your vote to count.
To be honest, I can see where the no campaign is coming from though - seems unfair for ticks to count as a valid vote but crosses to not count.
Remove them both IMO, but that ship has sailed for this particular referendum.
Yep if you count a tick as yes you need to count a cross as no. Super dodgy from the Yes side to try and get both as a yes.
It's just a long-standing way in which the AEC interprets the. It's nothing special to this referendum
I don't even care if he's got a valid argument any more I just want the turd to fuck off
