Apply for temporary employment with the AEC
Do you have to be an Australian citizen to work for the AEC?
The Commonwealth Electoral Act does not specifically require applicants for temporary employment to be Australian citizens, however certain categories of temporary employment require the witnessing of documentation, and thus must be undertaken by enrolled electors.
Are there age limits to working with the AEC?
Persons under the age of 18 years are not permitted (due to legislative restrictions) to work as an Officer in Charge, Second in Charge or an Issuing Officer. However, persons under the age of 18 years are able to undertake roles such as temporary assistants or scrutiny assistants.
What temporary positions are available?
The AEC uses its AEC Employment System to employ approximately 70 000 polling officials for each federal election. The system is also a register of interest which may be accessed to fill other temporary positions throughout the periods between elections.
Temporary employees may be engaged for short periods of time for specific electoral activities in the following categories:
Find out what a temporary staff member can expect if they work on an election.
How do I apply for temporary employment?
The AEC maintains a register of persons interested in temporary employment for federal electoral events. You can submit a Registration of Interest either through the AEC Employment System, or by downloading an ROI form and returning it to your AEC divisional office.
Register using the AEC Employment system
If you use the online system for your Registration of Interest, please be aware that there are two steps to this process:
- The first step is to register for an account.
You will be asked to provide contact details, basic personal information, respond to a number of yes/no questions, and input a secret word (provided at the bottom of the screen). Once you complete this step, you will be sent a username and password to your mobile phone or email address.
- Once you receive your username and password, the second step is to complete and submit a Registration of Interest.
To do this, you will need to use your log in details, log onto our system, and complete a number of pages of information. Please note: it is important that you select the declaration at the top of the Summary page, and click the Submit button at the bottom of the same page, as your information will not load into our system until you have done both of these steps.
AEC news