Albert Langer

Albert Langer (also known as Arthur Dent) is an Australian political activist, best known for his 1996 conviction and gaoling on contempt charges after breaching an injunction forbidding his advocacy of marking electoral ballot papers in a way discouraged by the Australian Electoral Commission. As a result of his imprisonment, Amnesty International declared him the first Australian prisoner of conscience for over 20 years.

Langer was educated at Monash University, where he became a prominent student activist during the Vietnam War years. He was a leader of the Maoist Monash Labor Club at the university, and supported the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist). He was also associated with a movement which argued that software should be free of copyright laws. Langer is an active opponent of Zionism.

It is believed that such activism saw his application for postgraduate studies rejected by Monash, Melbourne and Sydney universities.

In 1986 Albert Langer wrote a conference paper entitled Don't Vote, examining possible electoral strategy for the left, aiming to bring down the Labor government and to target ALP candidates in marginal seats. In 1987 and 1990 there were instances where Victorian voters were urged to take advantage of section 270 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act and give less preferred parties equal last preferences (now known as a Langer vote), so as not to express a choice for either major party.

To counter such tactics and advocacy of voting informally, the ALP government formulated section 329A of the Electoral Act. It was enacted in December 1992, making it an offence to encourage voters to fill in House of Representatives ballot papers in a non-officially-prescribed manner.

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