In Australia where are the votes counted?

Answer 1

Votes are initially counted in the individual polling booths after the close of voting.

In Federal elections, the results are phoned through to the National Tally Room in Canberra. In the weeks ahead, officials of the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) recount and scrutinize all the votes. For the House of Representatives papers, this is held in the AEC office in each electoral division. The Senate papers are scrutinized in the state head office of the AEC.

Answer 2

Voting in Australia is done on 4 levels

# Referendums for changes in the constitution # Federal elections for the lower and/or upper house # State government elections # Local government elections Voting is compulsory and if you are registered to vote and do not then you will be asked to explain why you were not able to attend a voting place.

Voting is done with an optional preferential system, This means that you vote for your favoured candidate with the number 1 then your next favoured with the number 2, then 3,4,5 and so on this system allows you to vote for some one that you don't think has a chance without wasting your vote, as the number two will be counted if No1 losses and so on.

Voting is done manually via a secret ballot that is filled out in a private booth. When the votes are counted the counters are observed by scrutineers of the various political parties and independents to ensure that no mistakes are made during vote counting. All in all Australians have confidence in the fairness of the electoral system and abide by the results.

When Referendums are held you are given an explanation of the issues involved from those that are for and against the changes and you vote yes or no.