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On election day the Australian Electoral Commission, or AEC, expects one million voters every hour through their voting centres across the country.
You must be sure to vote in your own electorate, says Jess Lilley, Media Officer for the AEC.
Highlights
- Voting is compulsory for everyone on the electoral roll
- AEC offers Australian citizens multiple ways to cast their votes, through polling centres, postal vote, mobile voting, a telephone voting system, interstate voting centre and voters overseas can vote via the Australian embassy.
- Australia is using a voting system called ‘preferential voting’
“There are 151 federal electoral divisions in Australia, and we’ve got a great tool on the website – aec.gov.au. You’ll be able to input your suburb or postcode to find out what electoral division you’ll be voting in.
But you can also give us a call on 13 23 26 to talk to an AEC staff member or access our telephone interpreter services.”
The AEC runs thousands of polling places on election day. Schools and church halls are common venues. The information is available on the AEC website.
“You’ll be able to input your suburb and your postcode, and our tool will help you find who your candidates are as well as where you can actually cast your vote.”
Polling places offer instructions and assistance in multiple languages, says Evan Ekin-Smyth, Spokesperson for the AEC.
“You can get somebody to assist you to cast your vote. We have an interpreting service via telephone that you can access. If you think you’ll need to access these sorts of services, there’s a number on our website – aec.gov.au/translated.
You call up that number and you’ll be able to ask questions and have somebody in language instruct you as to how to cast a formal vote.”
