BY BEV JORDAN
THE FEDERAL ELECTION WILL BE ON SATURDAY, MAY 21ST AND VOTING IS COMPULSORY.
There are 47 Federal Electorates in NSW and the majority of our readers are located in the Berowra Electorate.
Berowra is a very safe Liberal seat and is held by Julian Leeser with a margin of 15.7%. The electorate includes the suburbs of Annangrove, Arcadia, Berowra, Brooklyn, Cattai, Cherrybrook, Cowan, Dangar Island, Galston, Glenorie, Fiddletown, Hornsby (part), Maroota, Middle Dural, Mount Colah (part), Mount Kuring-gai, Pennant Hills, Westleigh, West Pennant Hills and Wisemans Ferry.
Julian Leeser, who is standing again, was elected as the Liberal candidate in 2016 following the retirement of Philip Ruddock who retired at the 2016 election after 43 years in Parliament.
BEROWRA: has 106,338 registered voters.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Voting on the House of Representatives is on a Green Ballot paper. Candidates are listed below in Ballot Order.
- Nicholas SAMIOS: Liberal Democrats
- Tania SALITRA: Greens
- Rhiannon BOSMA: Pauline Hanson’s
- One Nation
- Julian LEESER: Liberal (Current Member)
- Brendan CLARKE: FUSION (Science, Pirate, Secular, Climate Emergency)
- Benson KOSCHINSKI: Labor
- David LOUIE: Federation Party
- Roger WOODWARD: Independent
- Christopher MARTINIC: United Australia Party
- Benjamin CASWELL: Independent
To vote for a Member of the House of Representatives, you are required to write the number ‘1’ in the box next to the candidate who is your first choice, and the numbers ‘2’, ‘3’ and so on against all the other candidates until all the boxes have been numbered, in order of your preference. Ballot papers must be marked according to the rules for voting so that they do not create informal votes. Ballot papers cannot be counted if they are informal.
Polling officials at the polling place are available to assist voters in completing their ballot paper. If you make a mistake on a ballot paper you may return it to the polling official who issued it and receive a fresh one.
A House of Representatives ballot paper is informal if:
- it is blank or unmarked,
- ticks or crosses have been used,
- it has writing on it which identifies the voter,
- a number is repeated,
- the voter’s intention is not clear, or
- it has not received the official mark of the presiding officer and is not considered authentic.
THE SENATE
Senate ballot papers are white in colour and have a huge number of groups and candidates on them. Half the seats in the Senate are up for election, in NSW this means six vacancies need to be filled.
On the white Senate ballot paper, you need to either:
number at least six boxes above the line for the parties or groups of your choice, or
number at least 12 boxes below the line for individual candidates of your choice.
Polling officials at the polling place are available to assist voters in completing their ballot paper. If you make a mistake on a ballot paper you may return it to the polling official who issued it and receive a fresh one.
You can find your electorate at https://electorate.aec.gov.au
If you are temporarily displaced from your enrolled address due to flood or other natural disasters, you may still remain enrolled at that address.
You are eligible to apply for a postal vote if you are unable to get to a polling place on election day.
The earliest voting packs can be sent out is 26th April. The deadline to apply for a postal vote is Wednesday, 18th May. The Postal vote has to be filled out on or before election day.
