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VOTERS at Cleveland's pre-polling booth are getting mixed messages about how to cast a vote for the Senate. Saturday's election is the first since changes in March to Senate voting procedures which abolished group voting tickets so parties no longer have any control over where preferences go in the Senate. A spat broke out between Bowman MP Andrew Laming and Greens Queensland convenor Penny Allman-Payne at the Cleveland booth on the issue. Mr Laming raised concerns for Labor and Greens volunteers at the site when he told early voters they only needed to put a 1 above the line on the white Senate card. Ms Allman-Payne said Mr Laming was incorrect and was confusing voters on the correct way to fill out the ballot. “When voting above the line on the white Senate ballot paper, the vote will only go to the parties that are preferenced," she said. "For this reason, it's important to follow the instructions on the ballot paper and number all six boxes above the line. "If you don't, your vote will likely exhaust early, and rather than having a say on who wins the last four to six Senate places, will simply go in the bin." But Mr Laming said an above-the-line “savings provision” in the new legislation meant if only one square was marked on the ballot above the line, the vote would still be counted. He said if you marked the square for Party A – and only that square – and Party A failed to get enough votes to remain in the count, the ballot would become exhausted, meaning it would not count towards electing a senator. Ms Allman-Payne said that was why it was much better to express as many preferences as possible – either below or above the line. Australian Electoral Commission advice was that voters ran the risk of an informal vote if they did not mark ballots in line with the instructions on the ballot paper, which followed section 239 of the Act. However, under section 269 of the Act, voting 1 above the line is regarded as a "vote savings measure" which only operates where an elector has failed to comply with the instructions of the Senate ballot paper. "However, provided there are no other mistakes, 'vote savings' provisions mean ballot papers marked above the line with a 1 only (or a sequence of numbers less than six) will be included in the count," the AEC said. "The polling staff are referring to the voting instructions contained in section 239 of the Act and which are also on the Senate ballot paper. "Those instructions are that an elector must mark at least 1 to 6 boxes above the line or at least 1 to 12 below the line."

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