New South Wales’ online voting system was suspended for six hours because of an error on the Upper House ballot paper for the state election. The NSW Electoral Commission (NSWEC) “paused” the iVote system after two parties were omitted from a section of the paper. The iVote system is available to voters who are vision-impaired, have reading difficulties, live more than 20km from their nearest polling station or will be interstate or overseas on election day. The Animal Justice Party and the Outdoor Recreation Party were left off the “above the line” section of the paper, the ABC reports. By 5pm Tuesday the iVote website was back up and running.
“Voting has restarted on the iVote(R) system. The iVote Legislative Council ballot paper now correctly shows group voting squares for Groups B and C. We apologise for any inconvenience,” a statement on the website said.
About 19,000 voters had used the system to cast their votes using the phone or internet since it opened Monday.
Electoral Commission spokesman Richard Carroll said earlier on Tuesday anyone concerned about how they had voted would be able to re-vote once the system was restored.
Full Article: NSW e-vote system taken down | The New Daily.