Get out the vote!
Young people are engaged in their political futures, but demystifying voter registration helps ensure their voices are heard on election day.
Six years ago, experts warned more needed to be done to get young people to enrol to vote in federal elections.
Research fellow Tamson Pietsch, writing for The Conversation, said 18% of 18–24-year-olds weren’t registered to vote, with a “staggering” 48% of 18-year-olds and 23% of 19-year-olds not enrolled.
The 2019 election boasted the a record enrolment rate for young Australians (88.8%).
Young Australians dubbed “Generation Less” by author Jennifer Rayner, the first generation since the Great Depression to be worse off than their parents, had politicised.
Casualisation, negative wage growth, declining housing affordability and climate change were ruining their futures.
In 2022, things are worse for young people on all fronts after the pandemic disrupted education and mauled casual jobs. But the activists pushing young people to enrol to vote are not academics.
They are young people themselves.
The burgeoning School Strike 4 Climate Australia has released assets including a video, strategy paper and conversation notes urging their peers to enrol to vote and participate in the May federal election.
They say young people are “voting for their future”.
The conversation notes, targeting year 11 and 12 students, aim to create “mass student-led discussions with year 11s and 12s with the aim to enrol them to vote, and vote for a candidate who is committed to climate justice”.
“Conversations, particularly with people who we trust, are the things that change people’s minds and encourage them to take action.”
“Everyday people have access to so much information but it’s hard to process it. Particularly for young people, we trust our friends and families’ opinions. Young people need to hear from other young people about what they can do to protect their futures.”
This approach is on point with experts like Ed Coper, who says political decisions are strongly influenced by peers.
SS4C’s objectives are to:
Enrol year 11s and 12s to vote
Have conversations with them encouraging them to think about climate impacts and have these conversations with others
Have conversations with people to encourage them to vote for a candidate with policies in line with SS4C demands.
Achieve 100% renewable energy by 2030 or better
Achieve net zero emissions by 2030
Create a just transition plan for communities.
What can teachers do?
The SS4C’s detailed instructions for engaging new voters are laudatory, but 16–18-year-olds also need to be encouraged to vote by educators they trust.
The classroom can help foster participatory democracy by teaching students to engage in robust and thoughtful discussion. Schools and universities which create a respectful “culture of disagreement” and teach evidence-based argument enable students to be “informed participants in public debate”.
There are extensive resources for teachers on the Australian Electoral Commission site, but the most important thing a secondary teacher can do is show students how easy it is to enrol to vote.
RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS:
How to enrol to vote
Voting is compulsory if you’re an Australian citizen aged 18 years or older.
Once you are 16, you can add your name to the electoral roll.
Once you are 18, you can cast a vote.
To be eligible to enrol, you must be a citizen, and you must have lived at your current address for at least one month.
The process
Visit the Australian Electoral Commission’s website, and enrol online. You will need your driver’s licence or passport number and can sign electronically.
If you have neither a licence nor a passport, you need someone who is already enrolled to sign the form vouching for your identity. A parent is fine.
Then you either take your form to an AEC office, scan it, and upload it onto the AEC website, or send it in the mail.
If you’d rather fill out a physical form, you can get one from any AEC office, or call the AEC on 13 23 26 and ask for one to be sent to you.
The address to send a physical form to is AEC, Reply Paid 9867, and the name of your state or territory’s capital city. You don’t need to use a stamp.
Australia’s next federal election must be held by 21 May this year. Once an election date is announced, there is usually a week before the enrolment deadline.
Myth 1 - If I enrol for the first time, I will get fined for not enrolling and voting in the past.
If you didn’t enrol or vote in past federal elections, you won’t be fined now when you enrol.
Myth 2 - If I don’t enrol, I don’t have to vote, and I can’t be fined.
It is compulsory for all Australian citizens aged 18 years or older to be enrolled, and to vote in federal elections, by-elections, and referendums. It’s the law.
Myth 3 - If I don’t have a fixed address, I can’t enrol to vote.
You don’t need to have a fixed address to enrol and vote. You just need to fill out a ‘no fixed-address enrolment form’ to get on the Electoral Roll. You can find the form here.
If you are temporarily not living at your enrolled address, you don’t have to change your enrolment details, but you might want to add a temporary postal address to your enrolment record. You can do this using the online enrolment form, or by contacting the AEC.
Myth 4 - I will miss my chance to vote if I can’t make it to a polling place on election day.
If you can’t get to a polling place on election day, there are other ways you can vote.
You can vote before election day at an early voting centre. Or when the election is announced you can apply for a postal vote to get ballot papers sent to you in the mail. The AEC also sends voting teams out to take votes in many remote areas across Australia. For people who are blind or have low vision, a telephone voting service is available.
Information about voting options is available here.
Myth 5 - If you make a mistake on your ballot paper, your vote is wasted.
If you make a mistake when you are filling in your ballot papers, don’t worry, you can simply ask for another ballot paper and start again.
Make sure your vote counts. Videos on how to fill in your ballot papers are available in both English and number of Indigenous languages here.
Myth 6 - I’ve been to prison before, so now I’m not allowed to enrol or vote.
If you’ve been to prison in the past, you can and should enrol and vote in federal elections. In fact, by law it is compulsory that you do.
Anyone who is currently serving a full-time person sentence of less than three years also can and should enrol and vote in federal elections.
More information is available from the AEC here.