What’s involved?
Photographer : moxygen
The federal election can be held on any Saturday between 4 August 2007 and 19 January 2008.
Who do you want to be your PM? And who do you want to represent your local community and your state?
Before you make your choice, you need to enrol, and do it right!
The rules have changed
In June 2006, the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Bill passed through federal parliament. This legislation made some changes to how elections are run. A number of the changes became law on 16 April 2007 and many of these will affect young people and first-time voters. The main thing you need to do is be prepared and don’t leave enrolling to vote to the last minute!
Things to be aware of after 16 April
- Enrolees will have until 8:00pm on the day the writ for the election is issued to enrol to vote and three days after the writ is issued to update enrolment details. A writ is a document that contains information like dates for the close of rolls, the close of nominations, and the polling day. It is usually issued the day the election is called, but can be issued up to 10 days after.
- You must have current Proof of Identity (driver’s license, proof of age card), in order to enrol or update enrolment details.
- If you don’t have proof of identity, you must have your enrolment form signed by two people who are already enrolled, have known you for more than a month, and are not related to you!
Before you enrol or change your enrolment details
Make sure you have all your details up to date, such as:
- current living address
- current address on your proof of identity
- Proof of Identity (driver’s license or proof of age card).
Enrolment and voting age
If you’re 18 and an Australian citizen, you must enrol and vote.
If you are 17 and an Australian citizen, you can enrol, but won’t be able to vote until you're 18.
Updating your address
If you are enrolled to vote but have moved house and lived there for more than a month, you need to update your enrolment.
Steps to enrol or update your details
- Firstly you need to pick up an enrolment form. You can grab one of these from either your local Post Office, Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) Office, State/Territory Electoral Office, or download a form from the Australian Electoral Commission website
- Complete the form. Make sure you sign it and get someone to witness it! Remember, all signatures must be hand-written!
- Return the completed form. You can do this by faxing or mailing it to you local divisional office of the AEC. If you picked up a form from the Post Office, reply paid envelopes are provided. Also, you can scan and email the form to info@aec.gov.au.
- When your form has been received and processed, the AEC will send you a confirmation and tell you which electorate you’re in! Keep this info, as it will come in handy on the day!
After you enrol
- Make sure to keep your details up to date. If you move and stay there for over a month, you need to change your enrolment details.
- Know what electorate you’re in (that way it’ll be easy to find out where you need to go to vote on election day)
- Make sure you VOTE and make it count!
For more info
Go see the
Australian Electoral Commission website.
I want to do this!
This work is licenced under an Attribution licence.
© 2008. First published on actnow.com.au
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