Media enquiries:
Andy Brockbank,
Divisional Office Manager for Braddon
Phone: 03 6431 1414
18 November 2009
AEC stepping forward in quest for missing electors
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is searching for an estimated 1.2 million
people who are missing from the electoral roll.
As part of this search the AEC has embarked on one of its largest national mailouts this
year, sending more than 843,000 letters with enrolment forms to where they think many
of those missing from the roll could be. Across Tasmania, some 40,000 letters will be
sent out in late November.
The AECs own research says that the younger you are, the less likely you are to be on
the electoral roll, with young people aged 18 to 24 years believed to account for nearly
one third of the 1.2 million missing electors. Australians aged 18 to 34, or anyone who
has moved house in the last three years, have the greatest likelihood of not being on
the electoral roll.
Locally, Divisional Office Manager for Braddon Andy Brockbank has been getting ready
for the return of enrolment forms and enquiry letters from the mailout, and the expected
increase in public enquiries about enrolment. In Tasmania we are looking for around
13,000 people missing from the roll who have moved in the last three years and not
updated their enrolment. While the mailout is significant, it wont reach everyone who is
missing, or everybody who has recently turned 18 or moved address, so I urge any
Tasmanian who needs to act on their enrolment to do so now, he said.
With both state and federal elections due in Tasmania over the next 17 months, now is
the time to check your enrolment details, either online at www.aec.gov.au or by phoning
the AEC on 13 23 26. This way you can be sure that you are correctly enrolled and
dont miss out on having your say on election day, Mr Brockbank added.
In order to better serve electors, an enhanced interactive online enrolment form has
also recently been introduced and is available on the AEC website, www.aec.gov.au
the possibilities for errors, it still needs to be printed, hand signed by the applicant and
sent to the AEC before the enrolment takes effect.