Election Posters - the rules

The Beagle
Nov 18, 2021
2 min read

Election time usually means posters nailed to trees, erected up power poles at a height that can't see them removed or vandalised, installed on front fences and splattered around polling places. So what are the rules? The Electoral Act 2017 (NSW) (Electoral Act) provides the following with regard to display of electoral posters:

184 Display of Posters

(2) A person must not, during the regulated period, display or permit or cause to be displayed a poster—

(a) on or within any premises occupied or used by, or under the control or management of—

(i) the Crown or a NSW Government agency, or

(ii) any council or county council NOTE: Premises includes any structure or building, so a person who attaches a poster to an electricity or other utility pole without the written consent of its owner is breaching the law.

(3) Subsection (2)(a) does not apply in relation to a poster—

(a) on the outer wall, fence or other boundary of the grounds of an enclosure in which a building used for voting is situated, or

(b) within the grounds of an enclosure in which a building used for voting is situated, or

(c) on a vehicle on a road or road related area (within the meaning of section 4 (1) of the Road Transport Act 2013), or

(d) fixed or attached to a table or stall on a footpath or other public place at any time on the day of voting for an election.

191 Display of posters on early voting days at early voting centres

A person must not display, or cause to be displayed, any poster of any size—

(a) within an early voting centre, or

(b) within 6 metres of an entrance to an early voting centre, or

(c) on the exterior of a building used as an early voting centre,on any day on which early voting is conducted at the early voting centre.

196 Display of posters on election days

A person must not, on election day, display or cause to be displayed any poster of any size—

(a) within a voting centre, or

(b) within 6 metres of an entrance to a voting centre, or