Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A00347:clause:1_273a:p1
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A00347
Segment Type: clause
Provision Reference: sch 1 cl 273A (pt 1/2)
Character Range: 33765–36739

273A  Computerised scrutiny of votes in Senate election

Determination that computerised scrutiny applies

 (1) The scrutiny of votes in a Senate election for a particular State or Territory may be conducted by complying with the requirements set out in this section.

Processing of ballot‑papers by Assistant Returning Officers

 (2) Each Assistant Returning Officer must deal with ballot‑boxes and ballot‑papers in the manner required by subsection 273(2).

Processing of ballot‑papers by Divisional Returning Officers

 (3) Each Divisional Returning Officer must deal as follows with all ballot‑papers received by him or her:
 (a) reject any of the wholly above‑the‑line ballot‑papers that are informal and arrange the unrejected ones into parcels by placing under the name of each candidate all the ballot‑papers on which a first preference is indicated for that candidate;
 (b) reject any informal ballot‑papers that have no mark at all on them, and any other ballot‑papers that are obviously informal, and place the rejected ballot‑papers in one or more parcels;
 (c) place in a parcel or parcels all the ballot‑papers received by the Divisional Returning Officer, other than:
 (i) the unrejected wholly above‑the‑line ballot‑papers; and
 (ii) the ballot‑papers rejected as informal;
 (d) seal up all the parcels and endorse on each parcel a description of the contents, and permit any scrutineers present, if they so desire, to countersign the endorsement;
 (e) as soon as possible, transmit the parcel or parcels referred to in paragraph (c) to the Australian Electoral Officer;
 (f) transmit the following information to the Australian Electoral Officer:
 (i) the number of first preference votes given for each candidate on unrejected wholly above‑the‑line ballot‑papers;
 (ii) the total number of ballot‑papers rejected as informal.

Processing of ballot‑papers received by Australian Electoral Officer

 (4) The Australian Electoral Officer must scrutinise all the ballot‑papers received by him or her, and must reject the informal ones.

Determining election result

 (5) The Australian Electoral Officer must then ascertain the successful candidates, and their order of election, by using a computer to apply the principles set out in subsections 273(8) to (32) (inclusive). A tie at any step in the process is to be resolved in the same way as a tie in the corresponding step is resolved under section 273.

Rights of scrutineers

 (6) For proceedings under subsections (4) and (5) of this section, the requirements of paragraph 265(1)(c) are met if the scrutineers have access to:
 (a) a record of the preferences on the ballot‑papers that have been received by the Australian Electoral Officer and whose details have been stored in the computer (including informal ballot‑papers, and formal ballot‑papers that are not sequentially numbered); and
 (b) a record of the ballot‑papers that are notionally transferred, or exhausted, at each count; and
 (c)