Electoral and Referendum Regulations 1919 (Amendment) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1920. No. 126.

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REGULATION UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL ACT 1918-1919 AND THE REFERENDUM (CONSTITUTION ALTERATION) ACT 1906-1919.

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulation under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918-1919 and the Referendum (Constitution Alteration) Act 1906-1919, to come into operation forthwith.

Dated the fourteenth day of July, 1920.

R.M. FERGUSON,

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

W.H. LAIRD SMITH,

for Minister of State for Home and Territories.

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Amendment of Electoral and Referendum Regulations.

(Statutory Rules 1919, No. 57, as amended to this date.)

Regulation 77 of the Electoral and Referendum Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

“77.(1) Subject to sub-regulation (4) of this regulation, the Commonwealth Electoral Officer or the Divisional Returning Officer in whose custody any sealed parcels are retained pursuant to the Act or the Regulations, may, for the purposes of any authorized official inquiry, if so directed by the Chief Electoral Officer, open any parcel in his custody containing any certified list of voters, or any certified copy of the roll used at the scrutiny of absent votes, or at the scrutiny of postal votes, or containing any declarations used for the purpose of absent voting or voting pursuant to section 121, or any postal vote certificates, and may take out and examine the certified list or certified copy of the roll or any declaration or postal vote certificate, and take a copy thereof.

(2) In the case of a certified list or certified copy of a roll he shall forthwith replace it in a parcel, and fasten, seal, and indorse the parcel as required by the Chief Electoral Officer.

(3) Any declarations or postal vote certificates which have, in pursuance of this regulation, been taken out of a sealed parcel may be retained by the Commonwealth Electoral Officer or the Divisional Returning Officer or dealt with in the manner directed by the Chief Electoral Officer, and upon the attainment of the purpose for which the declarations or postal vote certificates were so retained or dealt with, the Commonwealth Electoral Officer or the Divisional Returning Officer, as the case may be, shall forthwith replace them in a parcel and fasten, seal, and indorse it as required by the Chief Electoral Officer.

    

(4) No sealed parcel containing declarations or postal vote certificates shall be opened in pursuance of this regulation until any election or referendum to which the contents of that parcel relate can no longer be questioned.

(5) A Commonwealth Electoral Officer or Divisional Returning Officer who opens a sealed parcel in pursuance of this regulation shall not mark, alter, or in any way deface, or permit any other person, to mark, alter, or deface, any document taken out of the parcel, and shall be responsible for every such document being replaced in the same condition as when it was taken out.

 

Printed and Published for the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia by Albert j. Mullett, Government Printer for the State of Victoria.