Appointing a scrutineer
Candidates can appoint scrutineers to observe certain election activities before, on, and after election day. Scrutineers can observe certain parts of the election where officials handle ballot materials. This is to make sure the election is conducted in a fair, impartial and transparent manner.
Some activities allow scrutineers to formally challenge ballot paper formality, interpretation of preferences or seal discrepancies.
These include:
- opening and checking sealed ballot boxes or parcels of ballot papers
- counting, rechecking, distributing and recounting ballot papers
- recording preferences by election officials assisting voters or transposing braille ballot papers.
Other activities may be observed and scrutinised but cannot be formally challenged. These include:
- declaration vote processing
- sorting and processing early and postal votes
- dispatching of postal ballot packs
- statistical counts conducted for information purposes only.
Please refer to the Scrutineer Handbook* and Determination for the full list of activities and detailed explanations of challengeable and non-challengeable activities.
Scrutineer quotas
Certain activities set out in legislation allow candidates to appoint one scrutineer for each election official handling ballot materials for their district or region at each venue. Quotas can vary depending on the activity.
For example, if there are 3 election officials at one voting centre issuing ballot papers, a candidate may appoint up to 3 scrutineers to that voting centre.
We will set how many scrutineers each candidate can have for each activity.
Appointing a scrutineer
Candidates must complete an 'appointment and declaration of scrutineer' form ahead of time, for each scrutineer at each venue. This form is available to download in the Candidate kit*.
Scrutineer responsibilities
It is important scrutineers are familiar with ballot paper formality rules before observing any counting activities.
Read the Scrutineer handbook* before observing any election activities.
Our determination on scrutineer activities sets out important information about what a scrutineer can and cannot observe and challenge, and the rules they must comply with.
Scrutineer resources
*Recent changes to the Electoral Act 2002 mean some of our handbooks are under review. Some content may be out of date. We will publish updated versions reflecting the changes soon.