With the early-voting period starting on Tuesday 3 October in South Australia, let’s run through all the options for voting Australians will be utilising up until 14 October.
Planning your vote is important because voting is compulsory. If you don’t vote by the time the polls close you will be fined, so make sure that you work out if you’ll be able to vote on the day early so you have time to vote using another option. Ready to vote? Find out more about filling in your ballot.
In person voting on polling day
For most of us, this is probably how we’ll be voting! We’ll rock up to a polling place between 8am and 6pm and cast our vote. Polling day is a Saturday (as always) so if you’re working during the day, play it safe and get your vote in early, don’t risk not making it there in time.
You can find a polling place here.
Early voting
Early voting is for voters who can’t make it to a polling place on 14 October, it runs for the two weeks before polling day – starting on 3 October in SA.
You can find a polling place here.
Postal voting
Postal voting is another option for voting early if you can’t make it to a polling place on referendum day. After applying for a postal ballot, the AEC will send it out along with instructions and a return envelope.
Postal vote applications will close at 6pm on Wednesday 11 October 2023, you can apply for one and see full eligibility here.
Voting in care
If you are a resident in a residential care facility or a homeless shelter an AEC mobile polling team may visit your facility if the administrator of your facility provides access.
Information about our visit, including the time and date, will be provided by your facility's administration. If you are unsure whether we will be visiting your facility, please speak to the facility's staff.
Mobile polling teams are AEC staff who will mark you off the electoral roll and collect your referendum ballot paper to be counted. You can ask our staff for assistance casting your vote if you need it.
If you cannot vote in-person, you can apply for a postal vote or you may be eligible to cast a vote via telephone.
Remote voter services
The other in person voting option is for folk living in remote areas. Remote voting services begin earlier to increase access to as many voters as possible so, there may be an early voting or voting on the day centre in a remote area near you.
You can find a polling place here.
Overseas voting
For those of you who won’t be in the country during the voting period there’s two options: in-person voting at overseas voting centres and postal voting depending on what works for you.
While we encourage you to take up one of these options, voting in a referendum is not compulsory for Australians overseas. If you are unable to vote you should complete and submit an overseas notification form to let the AEC know you’ll be out of the country to avoid them following up afterwards.
Phone voting
Phone voting, which you may have used to vote in a past election if you tested positive for COVID-19, is an option again this time around, but it has gone back to just being available to people who are blind or vision impaired. Phone voting works by calling and being identified and ticked off the roll and then transferred to another electoral worker who will record your vote anonymously.
Prison voting
Voting in referendums is compulsory for all eligible incarcerated voters serving a full-time sentence of less than three years. Similarly to residential care facilities, the AEC engages with correctional facilities in each state and territory to determine what voting services can be provided. Contact facility administrators about the voting services available, which will include postal voting.
