Election corflutes banned from public streets, changes to numbering on ballot sheets, under SA election reform

A huge election shake-up by Attorney-General Vickie Chapman would see the hated political poster banned from public streets – but also change the way we vote in SA.

Political posters would be banned from Stobie poles and public streets, in a planned SA election shake-up that would also remove the need to number all boxes on a ballot paper.

Attorney-General Vickie Chapman will this week bring a reform plan to State Parliament that she says would modernise the electoral system and “give voters greater choice”.

Other major elements of the plan include greater options for early voting, the ability to make online or over-the-phone applications for postal votes and more online public notices.

The push comes just over a year and half from the next state election in 2022.

A separate independent process is also underway to redraw critical seat boundaries on which the next election will be fought, and a draft determination is due for public release on August 15.

Ms Chapman said her package was a “sweeping” attempt to change SA’s electoral laws and that political posters, known as corflutes, were both wasteful and increasingly pointless.

“The fact is, in this day and age, corflutes on public roads serve very little purpose,” Ms Chapman said.

“They’re costly, detrimental to the environment and public safety, and do little to educate voters about a candidate or their platform.”

Posters would still be permitted on private property, like at businesses or on front lawns.

Former attorney-general Michael Atkinson made a similar attempt to rid the state of corflutes in 2009, but was stifled by the Liberal opposition and Greens in the Upper House.

Ms Chapman’s changes to preferential voting would allow people to vote ‘1’ only for their favourite party, or continue to number the boxes until they wished to stop.

Such votes can currently be counted, but parties are banned from actively publicising the option.

Ms Chapman said the change would bring transparency and simplicity, as well as stop “backdoor deals” over preferences.

Such a move may pose political risk to Labor, independents and the smaller parties more reliant on preference flows to get elected.

The SA Liberals have had the highest primary vote at each of the past three SA elections.

Ms Chapman would also permit the Electoral Commission to establish pre-poll booths at any location it deemed appropriate, and remove eligibility criteria previously required to use them, in a bid to get more people voting at times that are convenient to them.

Shortly before the last election in 2018, the incumbent Labor government eliminated a ‘fairness clause’ that required boundaries to be redrawn in an attempt to ensure the party that won the popular vote also gained enough seats to form a government.

A redraw based on the fairness clause was a key factor in the Liberals returning to government after 16 years.

Senior strategists in both major parties say the looming redraw of boundaries for 2022, based on the new rules, is extremely hard to predict given the lack of legal precedent.