What Happens If I Didn't Register To Vote

Fines and court: What tin can happen if you don't vote

By Ben Millington

Posted Tuesday 8 Aug 2017 at vii:39am Tue viii Aug 2017 at 7:39am, updated Tuesday eight Aug 2017 at eight:01am Tue 8 Aug 2017 at 8:01am

Frank Bost displays his fine for not voting. — Frank Bost was given the maximum fine for not voting.( ABC News )

abc.internet.au/news/what-happens-when-you-dont-vote-in-a-federal-election/8786684

On federal election day final year Darwin pensioner Frank Bost turned his nose up at voting lines and declined the democracy sausage, deciding not to vote.

"I didn't corroborate of the policies from the ALP, the CLP or the Greenies and equally far every bit I'1000 concerned it's my right that if I don't desire to vote I don't accept to," he said.

Today, Bost stood in Darwin Local Courtroom and pleaded guilty to violating section 245 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act of 1918 — failing to vote in a federal election.

He, and 12 other Darwinites charged with the same offence, discovered the Australian Electoral Committee (AEC) does non like you ignoring its letters.

Australia is one of a small number of democratic countries that have compulsory voting, with an even smaller number actively enforcing the police.

Given the maximum penalty

Over a serial of months Bost was sent 3 penalty notices which asked him to pay a $20 fine or provide an adequate excuse for not voting.

Bost told the court he did not run into the letters and would not have been able to read them. He is illiterate.

But the court showed no mercy, issuing Bost the maximum penalization, a fine of $180.

Earlier he could accept his fate, the AEC's lawyers put forward their legal costs, a sum of $123, which was added to Bost'due south fine.

"That was a shock, the lovely Electoral Commission calculation their fees."

'I should have got my name crossed off'

Bost was ordered to pay a total of $303, which he said he volition pay in $five instalments out of his pension over the next year.

The AEC lawyer said thousands of people across Australia are taken to court for not voting subsequently each federal election.

What did Bost acquire virtually the value of democracy?

"I should have walked in and got my name crossed off and walked straight out."

Posted viii Aug 2017 Tue eight Aug 2017 at 7:39am, updated eight Aug 2017 Tue 8 Aug 2017 at 8:01am