The federal government could look to bring voter identification in across the nation, just as Queensland seeks to strike it from its books.
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The state Labor government hopes to remove the requirement for identification at polling booths as one of its first acts, as well as lower the donation declaration threshold back to $1000, from the federal indexed rate of $12,800.
While most submissions to the parliamentary committee reviewing the state government's legislation agree on lowering the declaration threshold, support for removing the need for voter ID has been mixed.
The LNP, which introduced the measure, argued there were no "countervailing issues" to necessitate the removal of the legislation, while others, such as University of Queensland Professor and electoral law expert Graeme Orr, submitted there was no prevailing evidence the laws were needed in the first place.
"There is sporadic evidence of possible multiple voting in Australia, but not at a level to raise systemic concern; in any event, voter ID is no cure for that," Professor Orr wrote in his submission to the committee.
"Only real-time rolls can address that. There are real integrity concerns in electoral law: misleading campaigning, donations, the numbers not enrolling and voting, and open-slather postal voting (fraud has been an issue in postal voting, plus it cannot guarantee the secrecy of the ballot).
"Personation of voters is not a problem here, and so voter ID is, as Antony Green says, 'a solution in search of a problem'."
But it's a solution in search of a problem the federal government has been asked to consider by the join standing committee on electoral matters.
Following the 2013 election, 18,770 "multiple marks" – people being marked off more than once – were found, with 10,671 attributed to polling official error, 6000 remaining unresolved and 2013 electors admitting to voting more than once.
The joint standing committee praised the Queensland system and recommended it be implemented at a federal level.
"Not only will it bring confidence to the system in respect of the identity of the person voting, but it will deliver a robust basis for strengthening the democratic process and the sanctity of the ballot by seeking to best ensure that Australian citizens are exercising their franchise accurately and in the way intended, only once," the report found.
But in their dissenting report, Alan Griffin, Gary Gray, Chris Ketter and Lee Rhiannon questioned the impact the measure would have on democracy.
"At the 2015 Queensland election, voter turnout dropped to 89.89 per cent of those enrolled. This was the lowest turnout since 1980, the lowest turnout in 12 state elections," their report said.
"Given the large swings that were indicative of the electoral volatility in the 2015 Queensland election, it is surprising that voter turnout was actually down from the previous election.
"If voter turnout was maintained at 91 per cent as it was at the 2012 election, over 32 000 more Queenslanders would have exercised their democratic right. That is the equivalent of more than one full Legislative Assembly seat.
"If such a drop in turnout were to result at the next federal election, more than 165,000 Australians may be excluded from the electoral contest. This would not be a positive development in our democracy."
Critics argue marginalised and vulnerable sectors of the community are unfairly disadvantaged by the need to show identification at voting booths, but the LNP state executive maintains there is yet to be concrete evidence from the electoral commission to show those fears came to pass.
The federal government will consider the joint standing committee's recommendations. The state committee is due to report back to the Queensland Parliament ahead of the first May sitting.
