The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has finalised the number of voters participating in this year’s Federal election (21 May) and the candidates they’ll be casting their ballots for.
Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said that following last week’s announcement of 17.2 million voters, Australia’s biggest ever day of enrolment, the AEC could now confirm 96.8 per cent of eligible Australians have been enrolled to vote.
Queensland has 3,503,609 voters.
“With many nations around the world campaigning to get even three quarters of their population enrolled to vote, this result is a continuing source of Australian democratic pride,” Mr Rogers said.
“The roll has increased in pure number terms by 804,652 since the previous federal election in 2019, a rise of 4.9 per cent,” he said.
“In the close of rolls week, approximately 100,000 people were added to the roll with 617,000 other eligible Australians updating their details.”
Mr Rogers said around 80,000 young Australians (aged 18 to 24) joined online in the week after the election was announced, resulting in 88.1 percent of that age cohort now ready to have their say.
“Australians stepped up, AEC staff worked hard to validate and process enrolments, and our systems coped well with the load,” Mr Rogers said.
“Well done Australia.
“Now, it’s time to plan your vote.”
The Commissioner said 1,624 candidates had applied to contest the 2022 Federal Election, after nominations were officially declared on Friday (22 April) at public events held across the country.
Mr Rogers said the day represented a milestone in “the huge, complex logistical operation that is the 2022 Federal Election”.
“Approximately 60 million ballot papers can now be printed and distributed in the coming days and early voting will begin on Monday, 9 May,” he said.
“This is an enormous task that enables our 8,000 voting venues and 105,000 temporary election workers to provide access for Australian voters.”
He said the AEC was also working to ensure that each venue had the appropriate COVID safety measures in place and people could feel comfortable to come and vote.
“It really is one of the largest and most complex peacetime logistical events conducted in Australia, and now is when it all comes together ahead of early voting,”
Mr Rogers said.
Candidate lists in ballot paper order are now available on the AEC’s website at this
