The AEC engages with Australian homeless peak bodies and shelters in each state and territory to determine what voting services can be provided.
Mobile voting teams visiting homeless shelters will begin progressively from Monday 2nd October 2023.
The AEC will communicate with homeless shelters to provide information about voting services. Contact your local homeless shelter or the AEC for further information.
Enrolment
If you are an Australian citizen and aged 18 years or over, and have no real place of living, you may be eligible to enrol as an 'itinerant voter'. If you are in these circumstances, you can enrol for the address where:
- you were last eligible to be enrolled (this will generally be the place where you last lived for at least one month), or
- one of your next of kin is currently enrolled if you have not previously been eligible to be enrolled, or
- you were born, if neither of the above apply, or
- you have the closest connection if none of the above apply.
Further information and enrolment
Voting
People who are homeless can vote in-person via the same options available to all Australians if they are able to – at an early voting centre or one of the thousands of polling places open across Australia on referendum day.
The AEC will also be offering mobile voting services at some homeless shelters. This service involves teams of 3 or 4 AEC staff visiting a homeless shelter at a designated time to assist people with casting their vote. Mobile polling teams are AEC staff who will mark you off the electoral roll and collect your referendum ballot paper to be counted. You can ask our staff for assistance casting your vote if you need it. Mobile voting can be observed by scrutineers. If they are in attendance, you can also ask a scrutineer for assistance casting your vote.
The AEC will communicate with homeless shelters to get the message about an impending visit to voters. In many cases, the homeless shelter where an AEC will come to visit is a location where an AEC team has previously visited to assist people to enrol to vote and explain the voting system.