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Electoral Act 1856

Act providing for the election of the first parliament of Victoria

Summary

Act providing for the election of the first parliament of Victoria

Field	Value
short_title	Electoral Act 1856
legislature	Victorian Legislative Council
image	Coat of Arms of Victoria.svg
imagesize	130px
long_title	An Act to provide for the Election of Members to serve in the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Victoria respectively.
citation	19 Vic. No. 12
territorial_extent	Victoria
enacted_by	Legislative Council
date_passed	13 March 1856
royal_assent	19 March 1856
date_effective	26 March 1856
date_repealed	10 July 1890
bill	Victoria Electoral Bill
bill_date	27 November 1855
introduced_by	William Stawell
1st_reading	28 November 1855
2nd_reading	9 January 1856
3rd_reading	13 March 1856
amends
repeals
amended_by
repealed_by	The Constitution Act Amendment Act 1890 (54 Vict. No. 1075)
related_legislation
status	repealed

The Electoral Act 1856 was an Act of the Victorian Legislative Council which provided for the election of members of the first Parliament of Victoria later that year. Besides providing for the division of the colony into provinces and districts for the election of members of Parliament, for the creation of an electoral roll and for other matters, the Act also introduced voting by secret ballot in the colony of Victoria. It provided for a government–supplied ballot paper containing each candidates' names. The elector was required to cross out the name of those candidates he (and it was only he) did not wish to vote for, fold the ballot paper in a way that the vote could not be seen and place the ballot paper in a ballot box in view of the polling officers.

The Act was passed by a one-vote majority in the outgoing Legislative Council on 13 March 1856, and received assent from the Governor of Victoria on 19 March of the same year, in time for the election of the new Parliament of Victoria later that year. The innovation of the secret ballot was pioneered in Victoria by the former mayor of Melbourne, William Nicholson.

Victoria was the fourth jurisdiction in the world to enacted a law for a secret ballot. France adopted a secret ballot law in 1795. The movement for a secret ballot in South Australia was led by pioneer and advocate South Australian Electoral Commissioner William Boothby. Tasmania adopted a secret ballot law on 7 February 1856. South Australia enacted a similar law two weeks after the Victorian law, on 2 April 1856. The South Australian system in 1858 required an elector to place an X against the name of his preferred candidate instead of crossing out unwanted names and for the ballot paper to show 'no other matter or thing' apart from the names of candidates and on the back the returning officer's initials. The other Australian colonies followed the SA example: New South Wales (1858), Queensland (1859), and Western Australia (1877). New Zealand implemented secret voting in 1870.

When the secret ballot was adopted in the United States, it was called 'the Australian ballot'.

References

"Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council 1855–1856". [[Parliament of Victoria]].
{{Cite Legislation AU. Vic. hist_act. tcaaa1890319. The Constitution Act Amendment Act 1890
Museum of Australian Democracy, Documenting a Democracy, ''[http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-84.html Electoral Act 1856 (Vic)]''
Section 36 of Act
[http://foundingdocs.gov.au/item-sdid-21.html Payment of Members Act 1870 (Vic)]
Blainey, G 2016, ‘'The story of Australia’s people: the rise and rise of a new Australia'’, Viking, Penguin Random House, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia, p.18.
Australian Dictionary of Biography, [https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/boothby-william-robinson-3026 William Boothby]

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1856-in-law 1856-in-australia victoria-(state)-legislation election-legislation 1856-in-british-law 1850s-in-victoria-(state) election-law-in-australia

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