New South Wales

In New South Wales if you are eligible to vote you need to enrol before the State election. If you do not vote or enrol you may have to pay a fine.

Enrolling to vote gives you the opportunity to have a say about who makes decisions on your behalf.

You can enrol to vote if you:

• are an Australian citizen, or an eligible British subject enrolled to vote in Australia on January 1984
• are 16 years of older (but you cannot vote until you are 18)
• have lived at your current address for at least one month.

How do I enrol?

There are three different ways you can enrol to vote:

• You can enrol online through the Australian Electoral Commission website
• You can enrol downloading a form and returning it to the Australian Electoral Commission. Remember to sign your form before you return it.
• You can also pick up a form at an AEC office and return it to the AEC.

The AEC will send you an acknowledgment advice when your enrolment is completed with the details below.

• Name as it appears on the roll
• Federal electoral division
• State electoral district
• Local government area

This will take about four weeks, if you haven’t received the acknowledgment advice within four weeks you should contact the Australian Electoral Commission.

The enrolment form applies for federal and any relevant state, territory or local government elections so you only need to enrol once. You will need to update any relevant details, for example, if you change your address.

 Special category enrolments

This category applies for people with special needs or with specific circumstances that can affect their enrolment. For example, if you do not have a fixed address. You can check if you meet the criteria and apply to enrol in a special category here.

Silent elector

If you think your safety or the safety of your family could be put at risk if your address is made public on the electoral roll, you can apply to be a silent elector. Your name will be shown on the electoral roll, but your address will not. It is strongly recommended that other family members enrolled at your address with the same family name also become silent electors. Each application is considered on a case-by-case basis.