All electoral material must be authorised. The name and address of any person authorising the production and circulation of electoral material must be included on all advertising and printed campaign materials.

Rule 31(h) specifies that no senior officer or paid officer of the Union SHALL USE THAT OFFICE to endorse electoral material on behalf of any candidate.
 What this means in practice is that no officer of the union can authorise electoral material in his/her capacity as a president, senior vice president, vice president, general secretary or executive member. This does not however prevent an officer from endorsing material as an individual union member.

Under no circumstances whatsoever is an employee of the Union to use that position to endorse, or promote, a particular candidate or group of candidates.

Each candidate is entitled to provide an election statement not exceeding six hundred words in length which shall be published in the Western Teacher prior to the issue of ballot papers. Such statements must not contain defamatory words. All statements will be checked by the union’s lawyers and any defamatory content will be removed.

Rule 31(i) prohibits the use of union resources by any candidate/s for the production and/or distribution of electoral material unless such use is expressly authorised by Executive and is available to all candidates equally.

The production, including copying, of any electoral material is not authorised either by the Executive or the SSTUWA rules. Thus, no resources of the union are to be used for this purpose.

An example of Executive expressly authorising the distribution of electoral material is the provision for candidates to submit advertising material to the union office by a specified date so that the SSTU can send the material to every worksite. Candidates will be advised by the Union office of the date by which advertising material must be submitted. Any material received after that date will not be included in the SSTUWA mailout. The specified date allows sufficient time for the SSTUWA to have the material checked by its lawyers for any defamatory content and, if found, such content removed prior to sending any material to worksites.
Candidates may provide either a folded A3 sized poster OR an A4 sized poster, and are expected to provide sufficient copies of their advertising material for this mailout. The union does not provide copying facilities.
This practice has operated for many years and ensures that the union resource in question (i.e. the cost of mailing of material) is available to all candidates equally. It assists candidates in keeping postal costs to a minimum.

The use of union capitation fees (Branch Operating Funds) for electioneering purposes is not an appropriate use of those funds. Capitation fees are union resources and are made available to worksites for the purpose of meeting costs associated with the running of a branch. They may also be used to contribute towards the costs of branch refreshments or sundowners aimed at building membership or activism.
Under no circumstances are they to be used as any form of inducement for members to vote a particular way or to promote a particular candidate or group of candidates.

The prohibition on the use of union resources extends also to the use of membership databases for electioneering purposes. The provision of a union mailout of electoral material is intended to enable candidates to circulate their election material widely to worksites rather than home addresses. Union databases are not to be used for this purpose as this is a breach of privacy legislation and could leave the union open to a challenge from a member.

A membership database includes any list of members’ names collected by the union at industrial/professional training, branch or district meetings, District or State Councils; it also includes the union’s internal member information databases.

For the purposes of SSTU elections, State Council has determined that “union resources” also includes the use of SSTUWA staff time, stationery, email lists and facilities, photocopying and printing facilities and stamps. This is not a conclusive list – the general principle being that no resource of the Union is to be used to promote one candidate or group of candidates over another.

It is open to candidates or groups of candidates to advertise themselves in the union’s official journal, the Western Teacher. Such advertisement must be paid for in accordance with the normal policy governing advertising rates.
Election advertising in the Western Teacher shall be confined to the election period: i.e. from the calling of nominations until the close of the ballot. Advertisements must be authorised in accordance with 2.  ELECTORAL MATERIAL.

For the purposes of the 2011 election, the election period commences on 29th July 2011 and closes on 12th October 2011, both dates inclusive.

No election advertising material will be accepted for publication outside this period.

Elections for Presidential officers and Executive members are conducted by the Western Australian Electoral Commission (WAEC). The WAEC will appoint a Returning Officer to conduct the elections. The Returning Officer will conduct the elections pursuant to the Standard Election Rules – Non-Parliamentary Postal Elections January 2006 (as published by the WAEC) and the Rules of the SSTUWA.

Scrutineers may be appointed but must comply with Rule 24 of the Standard Election Rules (below).

24. SCRUTINEERS

(1)    Each candidate nominated for election may, by written notice given to the Returning Officer, appoint a person who is eligible to be a scrutineer in respect of that election, being a person other than a candidate for that position.

(2)    A scrutineer must make a declaration before the Returning Officer as prescribed in Form 2.

(3)    A scrutineer appointed under this regulation may:

(a)    be present while the Returning Officer carries out his functions under rules 26, 27 and 28 of these rules
(b)    not touch any ballot paper or envelope containing any ballot paper
(c)    direct the attention of the Returning Officer to –

(i) any irregularity concerning the issue of ballot papers
(ii) the admission of any envelope to scrutiny
(iii) the admission of a ballot paper as formal
(iv) the rejection of a ballot paper as informal, or
(v) the counting of the vote
           (d) carry out any other functions of a scrutineer under the rules of the
        organisation.

(4)    Where a scrutineer appointed under rule 24(1)

(a)    interrupts the scrutiny otherwise than in accordance with rule 24(3)(c) or 24(3)(d), or
(b)    fails to carry out a lawful request by the Returning Officer, the Returning Officer may direct the scrutineer to leave the place where the scrutiny is being conducted.

(5)    A scrutineer appointed under rule 24(1) shall comply with a direction by the Returning Officer given under rule 24(4).