Western Australian Current Acts

ELECTORAL ACT 1907 - SECT 142

142 .         Procedure for count of votes by assistant returning officers

                The procedure at the count of votes by the assistant returning officers is as follows:

        (1)         An assistant returning officer at a counting place must open all ballot boxes at the counting place.

        (2)         An assistant returning officer must count all the votes on the ballot papers found in the boxes opened by the assistant returning officer, rejecting all informal ballot papers, and ascertain —

            (a)         the number of votes for each candidate, if there are only 2 candidates; or

            (b)         if there are more than 2 candidates, the number of first preference votes given for each candidate,

                and must make and keep a record of the total number of votes for each candidate counted by the assistant returning officer from each of such ballot boxes.

        [(3)         deleted]

        (4)         Each assistant returning officer at a counting place must certify in writing, addressed to the returning officer, the number of votes or first preference votes, as the case may be, given for each candidate in the ballot papers contained in the ballot boxes counted at the counting place.

        (5)         An assistant returning officer may communicate to the returning officer the number of votes or first preference votes, as the case may be, recorded for each candidate at the counting place for which the assistant returning officer is appointed, and the returning officer, in ascertaining the result of the poll, may act upon the information so received.

        (6)         Each assistant returning officer must —

            (a)         enclose —

                  (i)         in 1packet, all the used ballot papers in their possession; and

                  (ii)         in another packet, all the unused ballot papers in their possession; and

                  (iii)         in another packet, all copies of rolls, books, communications from officers, or other papers or documents used or received at or in connection with the election, that are in their possession;

                and

            (b)         seal up the several packets and endorse the same with a description and the number of the contents thereof respectively, and the name of the counting place and the date of the polling, and sign the endorsement, and forthwith forward the packets to the returning officer; and

            (c)         seal up the packet containing the used ballot papers in front of the scrutineers, if any, present at the count.

        (7)         A scrutineer may sign a packet sealed in front of the scrutineer under subsection (6)(c).

        [Section 142 amended: No. 44 of 1911 s. 35; No. 59 of 1919 s. 5; No. 58 of 1961 s. 17; No. 68 of 1964 s. 28; No. 40 of 1987 s. 68 and 84; No. 79 of 1987 s. 78; No. 36 of 2000 s. 68; No. 30 of 2023 s. 88.]