Who can vote?
If you're an Australian citizen aged 18 years or older then you are required to vote in this year's federal election.
But it's up to every voter to make sure they are on the electoral roll and their details are correct. Otherwise, they may not be able to cast a ballot.
Phil Diak of the Australian Electoral Commission told SBS News almost 600,000 Australians were missing from the roll.
"It's really important for people who have moved since the last federal election or since they enroled to make sure their address details are up-to-date," he said.
What happens on election day?
While early voting is available for the upcoming election, most Australians will head to a local polling place on election day.
The obvious advantage of in-person voting is the availability of a "democracy sausage", or fundraising barbeques.
The House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is also known as the "house of government", because whoever controls the chamber forms the government of the day.
"For the green House of Representatives ballot paper, you need to number every box with consecutive numbers from one through to however many candidates are on the ballot paper," Mr Diak said.
The candidate - representing the likes of Liberal, National, Labor, the Greens - who gets more than 50 per cent of the vote wins that electorate.
At the 2019 election, 151 people will be selected to sit in the House of Representatives.
Preferential voting
There's a big reason why voters need to number every box on their ballot paper.
"The Australian electoral system, unlike some of its counterparts overseas, is based on preferential voting," Mr Diak said.
"The intent of the preferential voting system is to ensure that the most preferred candidate, looking at all the preferences, is the one that is elected ... This comes into play when no candidate has achieved more than 50 per cent of the first preference vote."
So if no one candidate gets more than 50 per cent at the first count, the person with the least votes is eliminated, and the people who voted for them have their second preferences counted.
This continues until one of the candidates has more than 50 per cent of the vote.
What about the Senate?
There's also the white Senate ballot paper, which is far larger than its green counterpart.
The Senate is Australia's upper house or, "a house of review and a powerful check on the government of the day," according to parliamentary material.
Each state will elect six senators, while the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory will elect two Senators, each.
There are two ways to vote for the Senate - above the line or below the line.
If you want to vote above the line, you need to number at least six boxes for a party or group.
If you want to vote below the line, you will need to number the candidates in order of your first choice to at least your 12th choice
From there, you can continue to number the candidates in as many boxes below the line as you like.
[The full story is available on the podcast above]
