Council to Homeless Persons is urging Victoria’s homelessness services to help consumers enrol to vote.
The electoral roll closes just 7 days after the election is called, which means that there’s only a short while left to check or update your enrolment, or enrol for the first time.
Every Australian has a right to vote, but people who move often are particularly likely to get kicked off the electoral roll. People without homes are among the most disenfranchised in Australia – and now is the time to do what we can to help.
There are two steps to helping someone without a home to enrol:
Checking your enrolment
Checking your enrolment is relatively easy, and can be done at the website https://check.aec.gov.au/ . The main task here is remembering streets you might currently be enrolled as living on.
When checking to see if a person is on the roll, remember to try searching for the First AND Middle names (if they have them).
Updating your enrolment when without a home
If a client’s enrolment needs updating, or they’re enrolling for the first time, it’s relatively easy to do online, if they have a driver’s license or passport.
They can enrol to vote in the electorate they last lived at, or where their next of kin is, or where they were born, or if none of they above applies, where they have the closest connection. They will need to provide a residential address to be enrolled at – but this doesn’t need to be their current residence.
If they don’t have a driver’s license or passport, you can still help them to enrol, so long as you’re willing to confirm their identity (and so long as you’re enrolled).
This method will require printing this form and filling it out in hardcopy. The good news is that the paper form can then be submitted in a number of ways, including online by scanning and uploading it. These submission methods are detailed on page one of the form.
And that’s it. It takes about five minutes to help a person to enrol. Given the very high level of disenfranchisement of people without homes, it’s important that we all do our part over the coming days to help people maintain this core right of citizenship in Australia.
