Anti-democratic changes to electoral law

By Zanny Begg

The Senate will debate amendments to federal electoral law on February 15 which, according to the Greens' Senator Bob Brown, would make it harder for "young and black people to enrol to vote".

The Electoral and Referendum Amendment Bill (number 2) 1998 will dramatically shorten the one-week period when people can enrol following the calling of an election. "The provision will mean young people and those who generally move house more often are much more likely to miss out on voting at the next election", Brown said.

Under the new law, the rolls will close at 6pm on the day of the calling of a federal election. It's estimated that 80,000 new enrolments normally take place in the one-week period.

The new amendments will also disenfranchise prisoners. Resistance member Stephanie Roper, also the Democratic Socialists' candidate for Strathfield in the March 27 NSW election, described this as an "attack on democracy".

"As a youth worker, I see a lot of people who are in trouble with the law. These people are made criminals by this society's drug laws, poverty, racism and alienation. What sort of punitive society do we live in which denies people in jail the right to a say in who should form the next government?", she said.

Roper pointed out that it was "particularly hypocritical" of the major political parties to be introducing legislation which sends more people to jail while at the same time introducing legislation which takes away these people's right to vote.

From GLW issue 350