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Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission will be conducting a broader, more consistent and better targeted range of mobile polling services to health care facilities for the upcoming referendum.
Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers has announced that, for the first time, mobile polling teams will be deployed to residential mental health facilities.
“We’re working hard to ensure our mobile services reach people who experience the biggest societal or circumstantial challenges to accessing other forms of voting,” Mr Rogers said.
“In addition to mental health facilities, mobile polling is also being offered to residential aged care facilities – something that wasn’t possible on a wide scale during the 2022 federal election due to the pandemic.”
Mobile polling teams deliver in-person voting services to residents at their health care facility – this service may be provided in a communal area or, where required for high needs residents, as a bed-to-bed service.
If a health care facility does not accept, or is not eligible for, a mobile polling service, a dedicated AEC support team will contact them once the referendum has been called, providing information and resources on voting options.
“This is a concerted effort to decrease barriers that prevent residents of health care facilities from voting, by ensuring that resources are deployed to settings that need them the most.
“Australians are fortunate to have an electoral system not enjoyed by so many around the world – a system where the needs of different groups of Australian voters are factored in.”
Editor’s notes:
The AEC acknowledges the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters, culture and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.