What constitutes a religious duty to abstain from voting
Dear Australian Electoral Commission,
For the purposes of the FOI Act I am seeking documentation that expands or clarifies exactly what the AEC regards as "religious duty" in relation to:
"under subsection 245(14) of the Act the fact that an
elector believes it to be a part of his or her religious
duty to abstain from voting constitutes a valid and
suficient reason for not voting."
Yours faithfully,
Sophia Wrightman
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Sophia Wrightman left an annotation ()
In the absence of guidelines, if someone says he or she has a religious
duty to abstain from voting as an elector and acknowledges in court that they are an elector at the same time, the prosecution would be of the opinion "yes, it can succeed". It is rather a mute case without proper guidance.
For-Official-Use-Only
Dear Ms Wrightman
I refer to your email dated 19 December 2013 4:08 PM in which you make the
above FOI Request.
I enclose a scanned letter to you from Paul Pirani, Chief Legal Officer,
acknowledging receipt of your request and notifying you of his decision
about it.
Regards
Owen Jones
Owen Jones | Senior Lawyer
Legal Services Section | Legal & Compliance Branch
Australian Electoral Commission
T: (02) 6271 4528 | F: (02) 6293 7657
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Original Message-----
From: Sophia Wrightman
[[3]mailto:[FOI #495 email]]
Sent: Thursday, 19 December 2013 4:08 PM
To: INFO
Subject: Freedom of Information request - What constitutes a religious
duty to abstain from voting
Dear Australian Electoral Commission,
For the purposes of the FOI Act I am seeking documentation that expands or
clarifies exactly what the AEC regards as "religious duty" in relation to:
"under subsection 245(14) of the Act the fact that an elector believes it
to be a part of his or her religious duty to abstain from voting
constitutes a valid and suficient reason for not voting."
Yours faithfully,
Sophia Wrightman
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Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
This is a very interesting question and it will be of interest to see what is the response from the Australian Electoral Commission. I think one must expect (and hope) that there will be no "guidelines" and for a very good reason. Section 245(14) (http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodi...) does not connect to the opinion of the Australian Electoral Commission. It describes the religious exemption in terms of "the fact that an elector believes ...". Facts are facts. They can be assessed from evidence about their truth and an elector might be demanded to show evidence of "the fact" but that is all. If an elector who has the belief is fined or prosecuted by the Australian Electoral Commission then they will have opportunities to show to a court the evidence of the fact of their belief.
The only important opinion for the Australian Electoral Commission is to consider whether a prosecution is likely to produce a conviction. If they have the opinion "yes, it can succeed" then they will prosecute. If they have the opinion it will not succeed then one must expect no prosecution.
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