Original question:

Would you be able to supply information in respect of Electoral Registration for Australia and New Zealand.

I am particularly interested in electors who wish to register anonymously or as silent voters.  I would like to obtain the following information if you can help:

• Why and when was the option to register in both of these countries as a silent elector first introduced?
• What percentage of the electorate register this way in both countries? 

• The advantages and disadvantages of registering as a silent elector.

If there are any reports available on this subject can you let me know where I might obtain copies.

I am most grateful for your assistance.

Responses were received, with thanks, from:

• Paul Harris
• Michael Maley
• Alan Wall
• Mark Johns 
• Antonio Spinelli

Summary:

"Anonymous" voter registration is commonly practiced in Australia and New Zealand, where it is used in such instances where personal details of an elector should remain confidential, particularly where personal or family safety could be compromised.

• In Australia, electors requesting privacy of their personal details when registering are called silent electors. They can apply for a silent enrolment if they believe that having their address printed on the publicly available electoral roll could put their personal safety - or their family’s personal safety - at risk. Silent enrolment means that the address of the elector will not be shown on the publicly available electoral roll, including any electronic copies of the roll.  To apply for silent enrolment, electors must complete an application form, and submit the form together with a statutory declaration setting out in detail the nature of the personal risk. At the same time, electors can apply to be registered as general postal voters. Silent electors can vote postal, pre-poll or provisional. Since 1996 the number of silent electors has more than doubled from 13,460 in 1996 to 30,713 in 2001. While a number of silent electors will avail themselves of the opportunity to become general postal voters and thus already be factored into the increase in declaration votes, a number of other silent electors will continue to vote as normal postal voters or as pre-poll or provisional voters. Thus the dramatic increase in silent electors would have contributed somewhat to the increase in declaration votes.
• In New Zealand, "anonymous registration" is also allowed as a means of protecting voters’ personal safety, recognising that there could be instances where details should remain confidential, specifically where personal or family safety could be compromised.  A confidential electoral roll is maintained for those electors requesting to remain anonymous, called the Unpublished Electoral Roll, which can only be viewed by the Registrar of Electors.  The unpublished roll consists of the enrolment forms of all electors who have satisfied the Chief Registrar of Electors that they need to keep their personal enrolment details confidential as the publication of them may lead to their personal safety being threatened. Their enrollment details are not released to anyone, they do not appear on the published roll. Applicants must complete an Application for Registration as a Parliamentary Elector on the Unpublished Roll and should also include any supporting documentation that may be relevant.

Note: The application form to go on the Unpublished Roll is an aid to assist the applicant when applying, but is not a regulated form.  It is sufficient a signed letter - or even a note - on an enrolment form saying an elector is requesting not to print his or her details in public roll (as long as evidence is also supplied).

One important argument is that - just because an elector belongs to a particular category (e.g. an individual supposedly under threat) - does not [automatically] entitle the elector to have his/her address suppressed on the electoral roll. The actual threat to the individual needs to be clearly established. Any application for silent enrolment should satisfactorily substantiate the particulars of the relevant threat and be verified by a statutory declaration. In the case of New Zealand, for instance, applications for silent enrolment must be accompanied by [either a]:

• a copy of a protection order that is in force under the Domestic Violence Act 1995; or
• a copy of a restraining order that is in force under the Harassment Act 1997; or
• a statutory declaration from a member of the Police to the effect that he or she believes that the elector's personal safety, or that of his/her families, could be prejudiced by the publication of the name and other details; or
• a letter from either a Barrister or Solicitor, the employer, a Justice of the Peace, or the like, supporting the elector's application on the grounds that his/her personal safety, or that of their families, could be prejudiced by the publication of the name and other details; or
• some other form of evidence that will allow the Chief Registrar to use his or her discretion as to whether to approve the application.

Links to the ACE Encyclopaedia and other related resources: 

• ACE Encyclopaedia: Anonymous registration
• New Zealand: How to enrol on the unpublished roll
• New Zealand: Everything you need to know about the unpublished roll - brochure
• Australia: Information on Becoming a Silent Elector
• New Zealand: Case of man refused information about woman on unpublished electoral roll
  

Quote from the ACE Encyclopaedia on anonymous registration and silent voters:

"Some voters have valid reasons for not wanting their name and other identifying information (e.g. telephone number or address) to appear in a published voters list. Election authorities often must develop techniques for the registration of these anonymous or “silent” voters".

"Some voters wishing to remain anonymous may prefer to register as “silent voters”; this means their names do not appear on any publicly available voters list".   

Individual responses in full:

Question: Why and when was the option to register in both of these countries as a silent elector first introduced?

Michael Maley:

In Australia, the silent elector status was introduced on 21 February 1984, through amendments made to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 by the Commonwealth Electoral Legislation Amendment Act 1983. The amendments flowed from the following recommendation made in paragraph 5.49 of the September 1983 First Report of the Australian Federal Parliament's Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform:

"The Committee was made aware of requests for the 'silent' listing on electoral rolls of people in certain occupational groups such as police, judges and magistrates, and people in danger of violence. New Zealand has legislation whereby a completely separate silent roll is maintained, and is not open to public inspection. At the moment there is no provision in Commonwealth law for such listing. The Committee recognises the possible need for a provision of this kind and recommends that silent listing be implemented for those who consider themselves to be in danger of violence.

Criteria for eligibility and procedures to be followed would need to be spelt out in any legislation. The application for placement on a 'silent' roll would, in the opinion of the Committee, need to be by means or a statutory declaration sworn before a member of the police force or a magistrate. Any such listing should be reviewable every 2 years."

A detailed description of the current operation of the silent elector provisions is contained in the Silent Elector Forms which are published on the Australian Electoral Commission's (AEC) website at provision for silent enrolment is made by section 104 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

Silent electors are required to cast a declaration vote under section 235 of the Act. Click here to access the full text of the Act.

Mark Johns:

In New Zealand, provisions for the Unpublished Roll Unpublished were first introduced in 1980 as an amendment to the 1956 Electoral Act. Before that, there was only an informal arrangement that if an elector had reasons to request omission of his/her name on the printed roll, the elector could ask for it to be removed, but the name was still included on the Supplementary List (which is produced between Writ day and Election day, showing new enrolments), which was not widely available for public scrutiny.  

Following the 1978 elections, the Wicks Commission decided to introduce a more sophisticated enrolment system and in 1980, the job was given to the then New Zealand Post Office (which became New New Post Limited in 1987) with a dedicated office to look after the compilation and administration of the Electoral roll (which is where Elections New Zealand fits in).  

At the time Elections New Zealand took over, they inherited some 500 names which formed the basis of the Unpublished Roll of today.

Question: What percentage of the electorate register this way in both countries?

Michael Maley:

At the close of rolls on 7 September 2004 for the last Federal Election in Australia, there were 45,438 silent electors, out of a total enrolment of 13,098,461. That amounts to 3.4 percent.

Mark Johns:

In New Zealand, there are 10,059 electors on the Unpublished Roll from a total of 2,868,471 in the Main Roll database. That amounts to 0.35 percent. 

Question: The advantages and disadvantages of registering as a silent elector.

Mark Johns:

The main advantage is that it reduces the risk for certain electors of being identified from printed Electoral roll and targeted by the people they do not not want to be contacted by, due to personal safety reasons.

Disadvantages: 

• This provision does not fully eliminate the risk, if the concerned elector doesn't change residential address at the time he/she applies - as his/her details will still be shown on the last printed roll (some libraries in fact keep back copies of the roll so can be sourced through this).  It is only for the next scheduled roll print (once a year and twice in an Election year) that these names would be removed from a public display roll.
• Electors on the Unpublished Roll have to cast a Special Declaration Vote (SDV) as their details are not on the roll used in Polling Booths. The Electoral Commission of New Zealand does not supply any Unpublished elector's details to any Voting Official.  A copy of the SV Declaration is sent to by the Returning Officer post election to the local Registrar of Electors, who would stamp the Declaration as saying the elector is qualified. The Returning Officer would then qualify the vote.  Casting a SDV is a bit more time consuming than a normal vote.  We also supply elector's list for Local Authority elections, but again do not provide details for the Unpub electors.  All LA elections are postal, so anyone on Unpublished roll would have to go to the Local Authority Returning Officer to get a SDV - again a longer process to cast a vote.

Antonio Spinelli:

Silent enrollment is the option given to voters of not having their details appear on the electoral roll, used in such instances where such details should remain confidential, particularly where personal or family safety could be compromised.  In addition to people in danger of violence or being threatened, this option is also made available certain occupational groups such as the police, judges, magistrates and other high profile people.

The main advantages of this option are obvious, that is to protect the privacy and personal safety of an elector (or elector's family) that could be at risk in case of possible misuse of publicly available elector information.

As for the possible disadvantages, those opposing this practice argue that the silent enrollment option contradicts the principle of transparency in a publicly available electoral roll, since the most important means for maintaining the integrity of electoral rolls, and in deterring/detecting fraud in enrollment, is the transparency of the rolls. It is a universally recognised democratic principle that electoral rolls should not be hidden documents which are secretly administered, but should be open, visible and accessible to all citizens, so that they can verify their own enrollments and those of others, submit a complaint and request eventual amendment if any errors, omissions or other inaccuracies are discovered.

This enrollment option also entails establishing an additional category of elector – the silent one – and, thus, the creation of additional administrative work for those administering the enrolment process as well as the related introduction of more cumbersome voting procedures and finally the establishment of a separate list of voters that somehow is based on inequality (some electors – depending on their own judgement - are part of this separate list, some don’t).

Others may argue that silent enrolment should only be allowed in relatively extreme cases of personal risk, so as to keep a satisfactory balance between the fundamental requirement for a publlic, open and transparent electoral roll and the need to protect the right to privacy of certain electors at identifiable threat of personal danger. Accordingly, any application for silent enrolment should satisfactorily substantiate the particulars of the relevant threat and be verified by statutory declaration.

Finally, by concealing the details of a part of the electors in a publicly available document that is used by political parties to reach registered voters in their constituencies, it could be also argued that this option - in majoritarian electoral systems - breaks the vital link between some of the constituents and their representatives.

Alan Wall:

To me, anonymous registration is a misleading term. In both Australia and New Zealand, the elector's name and address are lodged with electoral authorities and verified.  The term anonymous could easily give the  impression that the elector's name is not known or not recorded - in fact in Australia the name does appear visibly on the electoral roll/voters' lists - it is only the address that is suppressed, whilst both name and address are held confidentially (but still recorded) in New Zealand.  Using the term anonymous may create unfounded opposition (true anonymity affecting register integrity, etc. etc. ) to its introduction.

My understanding also is that, still in Australia, criteria in relation to the threat posed by having the elector's address published are applied to each application for silent (another not very intuitive term) enrolment. Just because an elector belongs to a particular class -  e.g. battered partners, judges, policepersons etc , does not entitle the elector to have their address suppressed on the electoral roll. The actual threat to the individual needs to be established.