“THE MAJORITY ruling in Rowe’s case has struck down early closing of the roll. Shrewdly, the head of Get Up!’s pro bono legal team, Ron Merkel QC, did not ask the Court to take a step into the unknown, so the Court has not ruled that enrolment cut-off days are entirely unnecessary, as in Canada. Nor has it ruled that in a 24/7 society paper-based enrolment is unreasonable. Instead the law has simply jackpotted back to the pre-Howard rule, dating back to 1983, that electors have seven days’ grace to organise their enrolment.

"The immediate effect is that approximately 100,000 enrolments will be processed that otherwise would have lain in abeyance…”