Australian Military Securely Vote over the Internet in another World's First for Everyone Counts
19 November - Australian troops deployed overseas in the Middle East, Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands are using the latest voting technology for the upcoming Federal election on 24 November. A new secure electronic voting system is being used for the the first time as part of a trial by Defence and the Australian Electoral Commission, taking advantage of Defence's secure communication infrastructure that allows encrypted electronic voting data to be transmitted. |  Signaller Tynan Garrett logs-on at Headquarters Joint Task Force 633 in Baghdad to cast his vote in the Federal Election. |
 Brisbane-based soldiers Private Jason Marsh and Private Louie Merimba read Austrlian Electoral Commission voter registration material prior to lodging their vote. | Baghdad-based soldier Signaller Tynan Garrett said the process only took him five minutes to vote. "Being only 22-years-old, I haven't voted much before, but the online system made the process easy to follow," he said. The Defence voting trial follows from a recommendation on electronic voting by the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, by reducing the logistical overhead of managing paper-based ballots in remote overseas operational locations. |
20 November 2007 Soldiers of the Reconstruction Task Force located in Oruzgan Province, southern Afghanistan are casting their votes electronically via computer for this year's Federal election. |