Poms should be Aussies to vote: Melham

Britons who have been living in Australia since before 1984 and have not taken up
citizenship should have their vote taken away, says a senior Labor MP.
The chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, Daryl Melham, says
the provision allowing British citizens to vote in Australian elections should be
debated in parliament.
Mr Melham said on Tuesday the ruling was out of date and Britons should be given
until January 2014 to become citizens or forfeit their voting rights.
A review of the electoral system, handed down in parliament by Mr Melham on Monday,
found there were 162,928 such Britons, which could make a difference in a close
election.
"It's my view that the time has come that if you want to be a voter in this country
you should take out citizenship," Mr Melham said.
The report on the conduct of the 2007 election makes 53 recommendations.
They include allowing people to enrol within seven days of writs being issued for a
federal election, as was the case before the previous government brought in a
one-day cut-off.
"Even though a lot more people got on the rolls because of extensive advertising,
there were a 100,000 people who missed out on the cut," Mr Melham said.
The year-long study also found fraudulent multiple voting was a myth. While it found
64 cases were referred to the federal police in the 2004 election and 10 in the 2007
poll, in no instance was a prosecution launched.
"In no election that I have studied in the 19 years I have been in parliament has
there been evidence of systemic fraud in the system," Mr Melham said.
He said any such multiple voting was mainly due to confusion. Often it was by the
elderly and people who thought they had not voted, but whose family had in fact
encouraged them to send a postal vote earlier.
The committee also found proof of identity provisions were "cumbersome" and
"burdensome", and called for a change to a signature only.
"The proof identity provisions that have been inserted in the act are
disenfranchising many tens of thousands of people," Mr Melham said.
"I refer to that as our 'hanging chad', like Florida in the first Bush election."
The MP said 25,000 people showed up on election only to find they were not on the
roll. When they did not return with their driver's licence, their provisional vote
could not be counted.
The electoral commission had a signature from the original enrolment or transfer
form, which should be sufficient proof, he said.
"These are not Labor or Liberal votes. These are Australian citizens who have taken
the time and effort to go along to their polling place on election day seeking to
make a vote," Mr Melham said.
"I contend the evidence is now in that that provision is a sledgehammer to smash a
walnut. A signature should be sufficient."
The deputy chair of the committee, the Liberals' Scott Morrison, disagreed with his
Labor counterparts that voters were being overburdened.
"You fill out a form, you change it when you move and you turn up at your local
public school every three years and count to 10," he said in a statement.
"I have no doubt some administrative processes could be improved, particularly in
the use of technology."