The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has announced that early voting for the 18 May Federal election is now open.
Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers said that with a record enrolment rate of 96.8 per cent, it was important that all Australians enrolled now thought about how and when they would cast their vote.
“We have the most complete electoral roll since Federation and we’re providing a broad range of voting services, but it is up to enrolled Australians to turn out to make sure they have their say,” Mr Rogers said.
“We moved swiftly on Wednesday evening to design, verify and then print ballot papers in time for voters to access early-voting centres from Monday.”
He said the AEC was in the process of printing a total of around 52 million ballot papers, and that opening the early voting period also kick-started the distribution of postal votes for people who had applied.
“More than 500 early-voting centres will be available throughout the early-voting period, with the majority opening on Monday,” Mr Rogers said.
“A total of 1,514 candidates have nominated including 458 candidates contesting 40 Senate vacancies and 1,056 candidates for the 151 House of Representatives divisions across Australia.”
He said the national total of candidates was slightly lower than the 1,625 who stood at the 2016 election.
In a statement, the AEC said that of the 458 Senate candidates, 280 were males and 178 females, and of the 1,056 House of Representative candidates, 714 were males, 341 females and one was not identified.
