(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
The Commission says, as the federal election approaches, it's working towards increasing Indigenous participation.
It says this is particularly important as Australia considers changes to the Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Bob Eckhardt, Director of the AEC's Indigenous Electoral Participation Program, says Indigenous Australians are significantly under-represented in the voting process.
He says Indigenous Australians are much less likely to enrol to vote than other Australians.
And he says many of those who are enrolled either do not vote, or vote incorrectly.
"They are fifty per cent less likely to be enrolled to vote in federal elections. If they are enrolled to vote, they are 50 per cent less likely to turn out to vote. And they are enrolled and do turn out to vote they are three times more likely to vote incorrectly than non-Indigenous Australians. So that's pretty significant under represenation. And it's particularly sad I guess given that last year was the 50th anniversary of Indigenous Australians winning the right to vote."
Mr Eckhardt says the Electoral Participation Program is designed to close the gap on indigenous disadvantage in electoral participation.
He says a team of 20 field staff, most of them indigenous, visit communities to encourage people to enrol, turn out and have their say.
They are supported by Indigenous Electoral Awareness Officers who help with electoral education activities, particularly in remote communities.
Bob Eckhardt believes many Indigenous Australians don't feel that federal politics has any relevance for them.
"I think for example in participating in land council elections and at the local government level is probably more important. It's more important because it's more relevant than voting for people down there in Canberra. And we saw in the recent Northern Territory elections that certainly Aboriginal people were mobilised and they had a significant impact on the outcome of the election."
The federal government is keen to encourage the Indigenous vote.
It's launched a national campaign aimed at getting the approximate one point four million voters not on the rolls to sign up.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus says this applies particularly to indigenous voters.
"We've got a great deal of effort in getting everybody Australia who is eligible to enrol, to enrol to vote. There's for a long time been difficulties in reaching people in remote parts of the country and of course that applies in particular to a lot of indigenous communities which is where the non-enrolment is to a larger degree."
Bob Eckhardt says there are many ways to enrol to vote, even in remote communities.
"So lots of ways for people to do especially electronically and that's particularly responsive to the way young people in particular communicate. And also you can pick up application forms, enrolment forms at any post office or any office of the Australian Electoral Commission. And in remote communities also, in the Northern Territory for example, the department of Human Services, Centrelink. They're there to encourage people to vote."
The Electoral Commission says people have until August the 12th to enrol to vote.
The Electoral Commission can be contacted at www.aec.gov.au.
