High drama in the High Court today

A wise person once said that regardless the problems of democracy, the solution is always more democracy.

Today the High Court underlined this by reversing one of the sneakiest things done by the Howard Government in 2006, when the Liberals held the balance of power in the Senate, as well as ruling the House.

Howard changed the electoral act to close the electoral rolls at 8pm on the day the election writs are issued, rather than seven days from that time. At the time, it was widely reported as a cynical move by the Liberals to try to exclude younger people from voting, stating they were more likely to vote for Labor or the Greens than for the Liberals or Nationals.
Regrettably, Labor chose not to do anything about fixing this when themselves in government. But they did delay the writs a little to give people a bit more time to get their enrolments in order.

However, some 100,000 people missed the deadline and were to miss out on a vote on August 21. Then along came online political activist group Get Up! and two of those people who missed the cut – one who missed the deadline for enrolling, and one who missed the date for changing the enrolment to a new electorate. An urgent case went before the High Court arguing that the 2006 changes were unconstitutional. The High Court agreed.

Not surprisingly, the Liberals’ Michael Ronaldson is peeved, claiming it will open the door to widespread vote rorting, and effectively stating they’d do a better job with the legislation next time, if voted in.

If you are one of the 100,000, you won’t be listed on the roll as they’ve already been printed. But you will be able to fill out a declaration vote this time. And get your act together a little earlier next time, eh?

Now, can we re-allow the ‘Albert Langer method’ of optional preferential voting under his ‘Vote Neither’ campaign that got him jailed for his efforts, which Howard also banned?