Polling station
[4] Since elections generally take place over a one- or two-day span on a periodic basis, often annual or longer, polling places are usually located in facilities used for other purposes, such as schools, churches, sports halls, local government offices, or even private homes, and may each serve a similar number of people.
Scrutineers (or poll-watchers) are independent or partisan observers who attend the poll to ensure the impartiality of the process.
The facility will be open between specified hours depending on the type of election, and political activity by or on behalf of those standing in the ballot is usually prohibited within the venue and immediately surrounding area.
Inside the polling place will be an area (usually a voting booth) where the voter may select the candidate or party of their choice in secret.
[5] One of the reasons for a tendency toward witnessed final posting or transacting physical systems yet retaining the secret ballot is to reduce electoral fraud.
Usually access to the voting booth is restricted to a single person, with exceptions for voters requiring assistance.
When votes were taken by gathering people together and counting heads, the place where this was done (sometimes an open field) was called the "polls".
[9][10] Polling places used to gather and count ballots in elections have changed significantly over the past 250 years.
[14] Researchers have spent much time considering what makes people vote the way they do; they have found that the smallest of changes can have large effects.
[15] This has become such a controversial topic that even President Obama in his State of the Union Address on 12 February 2013 mentioned the need to decrease waiting times.
[16] If a voter changes precincts due to redistricting, then the chances of their continuing to vote in future elections decreases.
[19] For example, in the federal seat of Lingiari (the largest in size (but smallest in population) of the two federal electorates in the Northern Territory), where Indigenous people make up around 40% of the population, most people have their votes collected by RMVTs and thus there is low turnout on election day in Lingiari.
[18] In Lingiari, regular polling places are generally only found in major towns and cities, such as Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek.
In contrast, in Solomon (the other federal seat in the Northern Territory, which includes Darwin and most of Palmerston), most voters vote at polling places due to their widespread availability.
[18] RMVTs are not exclusive to Lingiari or the Northern Territory, however; they are also used to a lesser extent in remote areas in the seats of Durack (Western Australia),[20] Grey (South Australia),[21] Kennedy (Queensland),[22] Leichhardt (Queensland),[23] O'Connor[24] and Parkes (New South Wales).
In the seats of Daly, Katherine and Namatjira, the majority of voters vote at regular polling places but for those in the remote parts of the electorate, RMVTs do exist.
