It's official: Australia will have an election on 3 May

It’s official: Australia will have a Federal Election on 3 May.

Here’s what that means for you 🫵.

Enrolment

According to the Australian Electoral Commission, 98% of eligible Australians are enrolled to vote.

If you’re part of the remaining 2%, go to aec.gov.au/enrol.

To enrol to vote, you’ll need a driver’s licence, a passport, or the confirmation of somebody who has already enrolled.

You must be 18 to vote. You have seven days to enrol if you’re not already.

Address

If you’ve changed your address since the last time you voted, you need to update your details.

To do this (or to double check), go to aec.gov.au and click ‘Update your enrolment’.

You have seven days to do this.

If you’re not sure which electorate you’ll be voting in on election day, search your address at electorate.aec.gov.au.

How to vote

When you vote, you will need to complete two ballots.

The first is to elect a representative for your local area (electorate).

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This person gets one of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.

Whichever party wins a majority of seats in the House of Reps forms Government and its leader becomes the Prime Minister. This vote helps to determine the Government.

Australia has a preference system for electing local representatives.

You will need to rank every candidate from first to last. The order matters, not just who you choose to put first.

If your #1 candidate doesn’t get enough votes, they will be eliminated and your vote will go to #2. This proceeds until one candidate has received enough votes to win the seat.

The second ballot is to elect representatives for your state or territory in the Senate.

40 of the 76 Senate seats are up for election — six of the 12 Senators from each state, and the two Senators from both territories.

The Senate doesn’t affect which party takes power, but it does affect how the Government passes its policies.

Voting for the Senate is more complicated than voting for the House of Reps.

There are two different ways you can vote:
by party, in which case you need to pick at least a top six. This is called voting ‘above the line’, referring to the line you will see on your ballot paper.

by individual candidate, in which case you need to pick at least a top 12. This is called voting ‘below the line’.

The big day

You can vote at a polling station on election day. These are often at primary schools or community venues. You will soon be able to check polling stations near you on the AEC’s website.

If you are working on election day, or if you’re just eager, you can vote early in person or by mail. TDA will explain how to do this when early voting opens.

You can also vote if you are overseas, although it is not compulsory. Find out what to do in your specific case at aec.gov.au/overseas.