How to vote in the Referendum?

Interview by Kathers Anderson

Have you ever wanted to have a say in something huge that will change the Australian social/political landscape (ignoring state and federal elections, of course…)? With the upcoming Voice to Parliament Referendum currently shaking down Australian politics (which is already as wobbly as a plate of jelly), you have a chance to vote whether to change the Australian Constitution.

I was privileged to receive the 101 on preparing to vote in the upcoming Referendum from William Taylor, the Assistant Director of Operations at the Australian Electoral Commission.

Hello Will, thank you for joining me today. To begin with, what is a referendum, and what do they do?

A referendum is a national vote initiated by the Government as a means to alter the Constitution.The Parliament will decide if they see an issue – in this particular one the issue is proposing to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution through a voice to federal Parliament. The last one was in 1999 and that particular Referendum was to ask Australian’s whether or not we wanted to become a republic.

When is the Referendum happening, and when does voting open?

The Referendum has been scheduled for Saturday October 14th. It is an in-attendance ballot on the day, but there are provisions for people to vote early if they are unavailable on the day of voting. Our early voting starts in South Australia on Tuesday the 3rd of October, and we also have our remote voter services starting from Monday the 25th of September, so they’ll look to service the remote communities across South Australia. Postal voting applications have also been opened since the 11th of September and will close at 6pm on the 11th of October. We expect that ballot papers will be sent out on the 25th of September to those people who have applied for a postal vote. It is important to note that there are eligibility requirements for early voting, and that these can be found on the AEC’s website.

Where are students allowed to vote? Does it have to be in their LGA?

Students can vote at any polling place within their state on the day – they don’t have to vote within their federal electoral division. If they don’t vote within their electoral division, then they will have to via what is known as an absent declaration vote. If they’re travelling interstate, then we encourage those people to vote at a pre-poll centre. If they are unable to do that and are interstate on the day of polling, and they haven’t voted prior, then they will have to seek out one of our specific interstate voting centres.

When will we find out the results?

It depends on how close the vote is. We do our count on the night and that will give us a decent indication of how the vote is tracking in each state and territory. However, electors have until the 13th day after voting day to return postal votes to us. If the results are close, then we won’t be able to announce the outcome until later in the piece, but obviously our intention is to try to declare the results as quickly as possible.

Generally our big plug is to make sure people are enrolled correctly. People have until 8pm Monday 18th September, which is the official close of rolls period to update their enrolment. If they haven’t moved since the last Federal election last year, then there’s no issue. It’s always best to ensure that you are correctly enrolled to vote so that you can have your say. Youth enrolment is one of our two main focus areas, but this time around we’ve seen youth enrolment, which is those aged 18-24, at its highest ever level on our roll at over 90%.

Students have up until 8pm Monday 18th of September to check their enrolments – they can jump on our website at AEC.gov.au. If they have any requirements, difficulties in navigating the website, or any questions, they can also call us on 13 23 26.

For our readers, here is a list of the important dates:

• Monday 11th September – Postal voting opens
• Monday 18th September – Official close of roll to update enrolment details
• Monday 25th September – Remote voting opens
• Monday 25th September – Postal ballot papers progressively sent out
• Tuesday 3rd October – Early voting opens
• Saturday 14th October – In-attendance ballots opens *LAST CHANCE TO VOTE*