A timely reminder — the quadrennial purge of the voters roll!

LG Leader November 2017

Spring is (at last) in the air – A reminder that there is some critical ‘house-keeping’ looming.

The required ‘house-keeping’ is that prescribed at section 15(5b) of the Local Government (Elections) Act 1999. This provides that the voters roll (the document which sets out each person, body corporate or group registered as an ‘elector’ and is, by operation of the Act, conclusive evidence of the entitlement of such persons to vote in council elections) expires on 1 January in each year in which a periodic election is to be held.

Therefore, your council’s current voters roll, will cease to exist in its current form from 1 January 2018 because the next periodic elections are due to occur in November 2018. This statutory ‘purge’ of the voters roll means that a fresh voters roll is required to be prepared after 1 January 2018 for the periodic elections later that same year. Importantly, the Act prescribes that it is the council Chief Executive Officer that has responsibility for the maintenance of the voters roll for the council area.

All of this means that certain voters must apply (or re-apply) under section 14 of the Act by lodging fresh applications for enrolment – prior to the close of the roll, in August 2018. The voters who are not required to apply or re-apply for enrolment on the voters roll are those persons who are registered on the State House of Assembly roll, maintained by the Electoral Commission of SA. However, all other persons including bodies corporate and groups of persons, must apply to the Chief Executive Officer of the council for enrolment – a failure to be enrolled will result in those persons not being able to vote and not being able to nominate as a candidate in the council elections.

We will provide further ‘election updates’ from 1 January 2018. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the information in this article or about council elections generally, please contact Michael Kelledy at mkelledy@kelledyjones.com.au or on 8113 7100.