Australian Electoral Commission
It is compulsory to enrol and vote in federal elections or referendums if you:
*You can enrol at 16 or 17 but you can't vote until you turn 18.
If you are a British subject, enrolled as at 25 January 1984, you are eligible to vote. More information is available about the eligibility of British subjects.
If you are serving a full-time prison sentence of less than three years you can enrol and vote in federal elections. If your sentence is three years or longer, you can remain on the roll but you are not entitled to vote until you are released from prison.
You are not required to enrol and vote if you:
You can enrol to vote,change your address or change your name online. Alternatively you can pick up an enrolment form at any Australia Post, Medicare, Centrelink or AEC office.
You only need to complete one form to enrol to vote in federal, state/territory and local government elections.
There are special enrolment options for people with special needs or specific circumstances. For example, you can apply to be a silent elector if you believe having your name and address on the electoral roll puts you or your family at risk.
The AEC will confirm your enrolment within three weeks of receiving your form and may contact you to request further information.
To find out if you are currently enrolled and to check if your details are correct, you can:
To check your enrolment online you must enter your details exactly as they appear on the electoral roll. For example, you must enter your full name including your middle name, if that is how you are enrolled.
Every time you move you must update your details with the AEC or your name can be removed from the electoral roll and you will be unable to vote.
If your name has been removed, you can re-enrol to get back on the electoral roll.
If you are an Australian citizen aged 18 or over, you should be on the electoral roll and ready to vote, regardless of when an election is due. If an election is announced, you have until the 'close of rolls' to be correctly enrolled so you can vote in the election.
There are different deadlines for enrolment for federal, state/territory and local government elections so enrol as soon as possible to make sure you don't miss out.
The 'close of rolls' is the date the electoral roll closes for the federal election. When the writs are issued for the federal election, a date is set for the close of rolls. After this date, you cannot enrol or update your details on the electoral roll for the federal election.
The close of rolls date is 8pm local Australian time on the seventh calendar day after the writs are issued for the federal election.
You must be enrolled at your current address so you can vote for the candidates in your electorate (also known as electoral division) in the federal election.
In Australia, enrolling and voting are compulsory by law. You must enrol and vote if you're an Australian citizen aged 18 or over.
More importantly, it is your chance to choose who represents you in the federal parliament. The right to vote is one of the privileges of living in a democracy–you get a say in who governs our country.
When you enrol to vote, your name and address are added to the electoral roll which is a list of people entitled to vote in an election.
Yes. New laws passed by the Australian Parliament allow us to directly enrol or update your address on the electoral roll based on information from other government agencies.
This does not happen automatically. The AEC has comprehensive checks in place to confirm if you are eligible to enrol and that you live at a particular address.
More details about this process are available here:
This process will not affect everyone and it is still your responsibility to enrol to vote and keep your enrolment details up-to-date.
You should enrol for the address which is your real place of living.
Your real place of living is your permanent residential address. This is the address you intend to return to even if you are living somewhere else temporarily.
For example, while studying at university you can remain on the electoral roll for your home address.
Remember you must vote for the electorate you are enrolled in.
No. Even if you have not enrolled before, you can do so now and you will not be fined. The AEC encourages all eligible Australians to enrol to vote and keep their details up-to-date on the electoral roll.
Yes, you are required by law to enrol and vote in federal elections and referendums.
If you find it difficult to get to a polling place on election day, you can apply to become a General Postal Voter to receive your ballot papers in the mail. The AEC provides mobile polling to some nursing homes and hospitals, and assistance and disabled access at polling places.
If you are a relative of a person with dementia, you should contact the AEC.
If this relative is on the electoral roll, you will need to:
Yes, you are required by law to enrol and vote in federal elections and referendums.
If you find it difficult to get to a polling place on election day, you can apply to become a General Postal Voter to receive your ballot papers in the mail. The AEC provides mobile polling to some hospitals, and assistance and disabled access is available at polling places.
If you have a physical disability that prevents you from writing, you can get someone else to complete and sign an enrolment form for persons unable to sign their name on your behalf.
If you are a relative of a person with a condition that prevents them from understanding the nature and significance of enrolling and voting, you should contact the AEC.
If this relative is on the electoral roll, you will need to:
The AEC is authorised under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to collect your details to maintain the electoral roll. To help ensure an open and accountable electoral process, the electoral roll (containing names and addresses) is available for public inspection at any AEC office. The publicly available roll does not contain your date of birth or contact details such as phone number or email address.
The AEC may disclose your details to prescribed authorities with access to enrolment information including:
If you believe having your address shown on the electoral roll puts you or your family at risk, you can apply to register as a silent elector.
