A role for the post office in Federal Elections

Australia Post made a submission to the recent inquiry into the 2013 Federal Election. In its submission, Australia Post suggested that it could play a greater role in the administration of the electoral roll and in the processing of votes.For example, Australia Post has proposed that it develop a process to verify eligible voters via the web. A citizen’s name would be verified against a range of agreed data sources, confirming the level to which the citizen’s details are consistently recorded across these data sources.Citizens who cannot be verified electronically could be verified through an in person ID check at a post office, where they would present required ID documents.Australia Post has also proposed that its information management arm, Decipha, could have a role in digitising votes cast in elections. The physical ballot papers could be scanned using high speed scanners. The system would then validate and count the votes cast.Another proposal is for temporary voting kiosks to be set up in selected post offices. Obviously, these post offices would need to have sufficient space for a kiosk.