• Who is eligible to enrol?
• Who is not eligible to enrol?
• Am I on the electoral roll?
• How do I enrol?
• Can I enrol and vote if I am experiencing homelessness?
• How do I change my enrolment details?
• What address should I enrol for?
• Which electoral division am I enrolled in?
• How is someone of unsound mind removed from the roll?
• I am physically disabled and cannot sign an enrolment form. How do I enrol?
• Do older electors have to remain on the roll and vote?
• An organisation claims they got my name off the electoral roll. Who has access to my enrolment details?
• What is the "close of rolls"?
• I haven't been enrolled for the last XX years. Will I be penalised?

Who is eligible to enrol?

Any person who:

• is 18* years of age or over, and
• is an Australian citizen**, or
• was a British subject on a Commonwealth electoral roll as at 25 January 1984
• has lived for at least one month at their current address.

*If a person is 17 years old and an Australian citizen, they may enrol but are not entitled to vote until they turn 18. If you will turn 18 years old between the announcement of the election (date of the writ) and polling day and have not already applied for provisional enrolment, you have until close of rolls to apply for enrolment.

**A person who expects to become an Australian citizen after the date of the writ and before polling day and is not already enrolled will have until close of rolls to apply for provisional enrolment. Their enrolment will be confirmed once they have provided evidence that they have been granted citizenship.

Who is not eligible to enrol?

You are not qualified to enrol if you:

• are not 18 years of age or over (17 year olds may enrol provisionally but can not vote until they turn 18);
• are not an Australian citizen;
• are of unsound mind (incapable of understanding the nature and significance of voting);
• have been convicted of treason or treachery and have not been pardoned.
• are a permanent resident but not an Australian citizen
• are serving a sentence of imprisonment of three years or more

Am I on the electoral roll?

To verify your enrolment details please use our online enrolment verification facility. For your search to be successful you must enter your details exactly as they appear on the electoral roll. If you are unable to verify your details it could be that you are enrolled at a different address or under a different name (e.g maiden name). If after re-checking you are still unable to verify your enrolment and you believe that your name should be on the electoral roll, please contact us by telephone on 13 2326 from within Australia, 61 2 6271 4411 from outside Australia or by email at: info@aec.gov.au.

How do I enrol?

To get on the electoral roll for federal, state and local government elections:

Obtaining a form:

Filling out an enrolment form will enrol you for federal and state and local government elections.

• Pick up an enrolment form from any Medicare, Centrelink or taxation office, Australia Post outlet, State/Territory Electoral Office or from this website.
• Alternately, you can call into an AEC office and enrol on the spot.

Completing the form:

• Completed enrolment forms must be signed by hand and witnessed (where applicable). Electronic signatures cannot be accepted.

Returning the form:

• Completed forms can then be faxed or mailed to your nearest Divisonal Office of the AEC (reply paid envelopes are provided at Australia Post shops/offices), or scanned and emailed to info@aec.gov.au.

By faxing or emailing this form you agree that the time of receipt is the time when the fax has completed printing from an AEC fax machine, or when the email arrives in the AEC's email inbox. You also agree that you will not hold the AEC responsible for any deadlines missed or losses incurred.

When your enrolment form has been received and processed, the AEC will send you an acknowledgment advice. This will advise you of the name of the federal electoral division that you are enrolled in. In some States/Territories you will also be advised of your State/Territory electorate and local government area. Please check that your personal details on the acknowledgment advice are correct and advise the Divisional Office if any of your details are incorrect. Your name will be printed on the electoral roll as it appears on the acknowledgment advice.

Can I enrol and vote if I am experiencing homelessness?

Yes. You can enrol with a no fixed address enrolment form.
Enrolment and Voting for People Experiencing Homelessness – Factsheet

How do I change my enrolment details?

Changing your address:

When you move house and have been living at your new residence for 1 month you will need to let us know your new address. This can only be done by filling in an enrolment form. It cannot be done over the phone or by email except where the completed form is scanned and attached.

At election time, people who are enrolled and wish to change their enrolment details for the election and haven't done so, will have the period until the close of rolls to submit an enrolment form, which must be received by/lodged with the AEC by the close of rolls. If your enrolment form is not received by the AEC before the roll closes then you can only vote in respect of your former address .

People who have not been enrolled before and those that are re-enrolling (that is, persons who are not currently on the roll, irrespective of whether they have been enrolled previously) will have until 8:00pm on the date of the writ to enrol.

If you are going overseas for a period of time you are required to notify the AEC or register as an overseas elector. For further information please see the overseas elector section.

Changing your name:

If you need to change your enrolled name (for example, you get married) you simply need to complete and submit a new enrolment form.

What address should I enrol for?

You can remain on the electoral roll for your permanent address, or ‘real place of living’, while you temporarily reside elsewhere. For example, while you are studying at college or university you can remain on the roll for your home address.

Section 4 "Interpretation" of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 states:

"Real Place of Living includes the place of living to which a person, when temporarily living somewhere else, has a fixed intention of returning for the purpose of continuing to live at this place.”

This means that you should enrol for the address that you intend to return to for the purpose of living. Remember that you must vote for the electorate that you are enrolled in.

Which electoral division am I enrolled in?

To check which division you are enrolled in, please use our Electorate and Polling Place search. You are able to search by suburb or postcode. If your suburb is covered by more than one electorate please phone 13 2326 for further information.

Alternatively you can check which division you are enrolled in by using our Enrolment Verification Facility. For your search to be successful you must enter your enrolment details exactly as they appear on the electoral roll. If you are unable to verify your details it could be that you are enrolled at a different address or under a different name (e.g maiden name). If after re-checking you are still unable to verify your enrolment and you believe that your name should be on the electoral roll, please contact us by telephone on 13 2326 from within Australia, 61 2 6271 4411 from outside Australia or by email at: info@aec.gov.au.

How is someone of unsound mind removed from the roll?

A person may be removed from the roll where a registered medical practitioner has certified in writing that the person is incapable of understanding the nature and significance of enrolment and voting. This certificate needs to be accompanied by a "Claim that an elector should not be on the roll" form, available by phoning 13 2326.

I am physically disabled and cannot sign an enrolment form. How do I enrol?

If you have a physical disability which precludes you from signing the form, you can obtain a special enrolment form from any AEC office, or by phoning 13 2326 or downloading it from our website. You will need to attach a medical certificate, signed by a registered medical practitioner and certifying that you cannot sign the form yourself. You then send the completed enrolment form and the doctor's certificate to your Divisional Returning Officer. NB enrolment forms can be sent to any AEC office.

If you are enrolling this way you may also be eligible to apply to become a general postal voter (refer to General Postal Voters)

The postal voting papers you receive from the Divisional Returning Officer will also set out the circumstances in which a physically incapacitated elector may be assisted in recording a vote and returning the ballot papers.

Do older electors have to remain on the roll and vote?

All Australian citizens 18 years and older are required by law to enrol and vote in federal elections, including older Australians.

The AEC caters for elderly and less mobile electors through the provision of postal voting, mobile polling to nursing homes and hospitals, and assistance and disabled access at polling places.

The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 allows for the removal of names from the electoral roll if an elector is of unsound mind, and unable to understand the nature and significance of enrolment and voting. Requests based on this reason must be made by completing an objection form (available from any AEC office or by phoning 13 2326) and accompanying this with a certificate from a registered medical practitioner specifying that the person is of unsound mind and incapable of understanding the nature and significance of enrolment and voting.

An organisation claims they got my name off the electoral roll. Who has access to my enrolment details?

The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 requires that the public electoral roll, containing electors' name and address information, be available for public inspection at any AEC office. The electoral roll is made public so that electors can verify the openness and accountability of the electoral process and object to the enrolment of any elector.

The CEA provides that Members of Parliament, political parties, approved medical researchers and public health screening programs may be supplied with confidential elector information, including name and residential address, gender and date of birth details.

The CEA also provides that certain government agencies may have access to confidential elector information for purposes permitted by the Privacy Act 1988 including law enforcement and protection of the public revenue. See the full list of government agencies that are entitled to receive confidential elector information and the purposes for use of the information.

What is the "close of rolls"?

The electoral roll is continuously updated, however, following the issue of the ‘writ’ for an election , which sets the election timetable, the roll for the election is closed. The roll for the election closes at 8.00 pm local time on the third working day after the writ is issued and cannot be updated after that date. The close of rolls for people newly enrolling or re-enrolling is 8:00pm on the day on which the writ is issued

• Close of Rolls - Factsheet

I haven't been enrolled for the last XX years. Will I be penalised?

If you fill in an enrolment form now, you won't be penalised.

Where a person may have overlooked the responsibility to enrol and vote, the AEC's main interest is to ensure that eligible people do actually enrol.

Section 101 (7) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 states,

"Where a person sends or delivers a claim for enrolment, or for transfer of enrolment, to a Divisional Returning Officer or an Australian Electoral Officer, proceedings shall not be instituted against that person for any offence - committed before the claim was so sent or delivered."

This means that once a person gives the AEC a completed enrolment form, we cannot prosecute the person for not enrolling before, no matter how long he or she has technically been in breach of the law.

Therefore you can be assured that anyone who may have overlooked correct enrolment in the past and who decides to now enrol to vote a federal elections may do so without any fear of incurring a penalty.