T Wilson-Brown
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear T Wilson-Brown
Decision notice on your access application
I refer to your access application made under the Freedom of Information Act 2016 (FOI
Act), received 22 February 2021. This application requested access to:
“access to documents held by the Commission, including correspondence, relating to
paper vote scanning accuracy in the 2020 election. I apply for access to documents
about:
Manual checking of scanned paper ballots, including:
The number of scans flagged for manual checking
The number of votes considered formal and informal after manual checking
Estimates or discussion of the number of ballot papers which were actually
ambiguous, but were not flagged by the scanner for manual checking
Audits of paper ballot scanning, including:
The number of formal and informal ballots audited
The number of errors found
Any reviews or changes to the audit method or process
The overall accuracy of the process, including:
Comparisons of the ACT’s electronic scanning and counting accuracy with the
accuracy of scanned or manual recounts in other jurisdictions
Any errors discovered in paper bal ot scans or counts”
Authority
I am an officer authorised by the ACT Electoral Commissioner to make decisions about
access to public sector information, in accordance with section 18 of the FOI Act.
Decision
I have identified eight documents containing information within the scope of your access
application. These are outlined in the attached Schedule of documents.
I have decided to:
— 2 —
grant part access to one document; and
grant ful access to the remaining seven documents.
For the reasons outlined in the attached Reasons for decision, I have redacted some of
the information within the part-access document. This is because the information is out-
of-scope for the access application and it is also contrary to the public interest
information.
Disclosure of information
The released documents are attached.
Disclosure log
Please note that section 28 of the FOI Act requires publication of access applications and
any information subsequently released on our disclosure log
www.elections.act.gov.au/about_us/freedom_of_information
This means that if access to the information is granted, it wil also be made available to
everyone on our website, unless the access application is an application for your personal,
business, commercial, financial or professional information.
Review rights
You may apply to the ACT Ombudsman to review my decision under section 73 of the FOI
Act. An application for review must be made within 20 days of receipt of this decision
notice.
You may submit a request for review of my decision to the ACT Ombudsman by writing in
one of the fol owing ways:
Email (preferred):
xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Post: The ACT Ombudsman GPO Box 442 CANBERRA ACT 2601
More information about ACT Ombudsman review is available on the ACT Ombudsman
website at:
www.ombudsman.act.gov.au/improving-the-act/freedom-of-information
Yours sincerely
Ro Spence
Deputy Electoral Commissioner
15 April 2021
Document Outline
