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Section Three: The Countdown - Part Three

Narration:

From the issue of the writs onwards, the AEC also conducts a major advertising campaign to provide voters with information about enrolling. Special call centres operate during the countdown period to answer hundreds of thousands of queries by would be voters.

Later, the advertising campaign addresses a range of issues from how to ensure that you cast a formal vote, to how to have your say if you are going, for any reason, to be away from home or unable to get to a polling place on election day.

The AEC offers a comprehensive range of voting options for those who are unable to vote on election day. One that makes substantial logistic demands is catering for the many thousands of eligible Australian voters who will be overseas on polling day.

Questions:

What sorts of questions do you imagine people would ask when phoning a call centre? The most common questions are "Am I on the roll?" and "Where can I vote?".

Voters who have not been previously enrolled will have to get their names on the roll. This means people who have just become old enough. Who else? People who have become Australian citizens since the last election.

Who else will need to check the roll? People who have changed their address. You must enrol for the address at which you reside.

A formal vote is a ballot paper that has been correctly filled-in; it will count. An informal vote is an incorrect ballot paper, it will not be counted. What might be wrong? Ballot papers left blank; voter's name written on ballots; ticks instead of numbers, repeating numbers or not enough numbers on the ballot paper are some examples. What reasons might there be for not being able to get to a polling place? Work, religious observance, health, travelling distance from the nearest polling place are some examples.

Which overseas post takes the most votes? Australia House in London takes more votes than any other polling place – including all of those in Australia!

• Do a class survey: Where did your family vote? And plot the locations on an area map.