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Speaker 1: As we know, the Australian Electoral Commission has begun remote

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Speaker 1: voting across Australia, with sixty teams set to visit more

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Speaker 1: than seven hundred and fifty locations over the next three weeks.

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Speaker 1: Is my understanding. Dozens of voters cast their ballots in

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Speaker 1: Warama Younger earlier in the week, and I guess, you know,

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Speaker 1: to tell us a little bit more about how the

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Speaker 1: rest of that rollout is going to happen. Well, joining

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Speaker 1: me in the studio is Jeff Bloom, the Australian Electoral

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Speaker 1: Officer for the Northern Territory. Good morning to you, Jeff.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Good to see you in the studio again. Now, how

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Speaker 1: did the first couple of days of voting on the

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Speaker 1: Tiwei Islands go this week? I know it's still going,

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Speaker 1: but how's it been going?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Well, I was out there on Tuesday morning.

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Speaker 3: We had a couple of mediate people following us over

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Speaker 3: there to do the story. A really good turnout. There

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Speaker 3: were lots of people going into the polling place and

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Speaker 3: that was great to see. That's what we're there for

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Speaker 3: and encouraging people to participate for sure. Got some local

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Speaker 3: assistants out there, they're local people helping those voters when

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Speaker 3: they go into the polling place. So off to a

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Speaker 3: really good start.

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Speaker 1: Off to a good start. That is good to hear it. Now,

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Speaker 1: which community is are going to be next or how's

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Speaker 1: the process work next.

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Speaker 3: We've got nineteen teams in total in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 3: and they'll be delivering services to around two hundred locations.

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Speaker 3: So we started this week, got two more weeks to

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Speaker 3: go after this week, so they're out in the Barkley

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Speaker 3: area now, although must say there's a little bit going

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Speaker 3: on in the.

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Speaker 2: Barkley with the bushfires.

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Speaker 3: We had a bit of an issue this morning in

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Speaker 3: the community of a Mandra where there was smoke going

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Speaker 3: into the community, so we had to decide to not

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Speaker 3: deliver that service today.

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Speaker 2: We'll loop back.

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Speaker 3: We've got a couple more weeks to be able to

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Speaker 3: go back to that location. So we're responding to those

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Speaker 3: sorts of issues as they appear as well. But in

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Speaker 3: cross central Australia right across the top end as well,

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Speaker 3: including to the islands.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it must be difficult, I suppose in some of

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Speaker 1: those more remote locations when you've got things like bushfires

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Speaker 1: burning in the Barkley Region having to adapt the way

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Speaker 1: that you're doing things.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very much.

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Speaker 1: So.

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Speaker 3: Look, we always experience issues when we're trying to deliver

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Speaker 3: across a very very large geographical area, so one point

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Speaker 3: three million square kilometers division of Lingy area in the

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory, very very big, a lot of country to traverse,

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Speaker 3: so that the usual sorts of things with car issues.

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Speaker 3: We've had a couple of flat tires already, which means

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Speaker 3: teams are late into those locations, so we've got to.

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Speaker 2: Reschedule the polling hours.

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Speaker 3: If you start late, we like to pick that up

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Speaker 3: at the end, make sure that the full service is delivered,

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Speaker 3: the lock gates, the things that usually happen. And there's

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Speaker 3: also been some sorry business in communities which has been

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Speaker 3: you know, something that we're looking at as well. If

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Speaker 3: we don't get to a community in the first instance,

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Speaker 3: we'll try to get back a little bit later on.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right now, tell me when can people in urban

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Speaker 1: centers cast their votes?

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Speaker 3: So the first of the early voting centers and the

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory next Monday, so October second, so in Darwin Eton,

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Speaker 3: which is the day on airt precinct and also Palmston Cooling,

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Speaker 3: Catherine Alice Springs. They all open next week, so.

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Speaker 1: Next Monday we can head in and start to cast

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Speaker 1: those early votes. Do you reckon that you're going to

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Speaker 1: see quite a large turnout of people heading in early.

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Speaker 2: We do.

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Speaker 3: We've seen larger numbers of early early voters event to events,

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Speaker 3: so we'd expect a lot of people take advantage of

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Speaker 3: that and cast their vote early. Of course, postal voting

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Speaker 3: is also open for someone that can't get to a

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Speaker 3: polling place on polling day. The postal voting opportunities there

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Speaker 3: post of at application online easier to fill out, and

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Speaker 3: the ballot papers.

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Speaker 2: Will be delivered to people's doore.

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Speaker 3: The only thing I'd say there is get that postal

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Speaker 3: vote application in early, for example, by the end of

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Speaker 3: next week. If we've got to deliver the ballot papers.

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Speaker 3: The closer we get to polling day, the more difficult

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Speaker 3: is we get to get the ballot papers to people.

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Speaker 1: And I guess in terms of a postal vote, it's

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Speaker 1: more so if you're not able to head in and

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Speaker 1: vote early from next week. You know, for a lot

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Speaker 1: of people it's probably going to be quite easy for

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Speaker 1: them to go in and vote from next Monday.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right.

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Speaker 3: So the postal vote option is for people that can't

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Speaker 3: get to a polling place yep. So we've got people

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Speaker 3: in pastoral communities, for example, and also people that know

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Speaker 3: that they're not able to get to a voting center,

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Speaker 3: including on voting day. So there is some eligibility criteria

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Speaker 3: around that that's available on the website as well. But

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Speaker 3: certainly the number.

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Speaker 2: Of postal votes.

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Speaker 3: I think we've had something like five thousand applications so

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Speaker 3: far in the Northern Territory out of a total of

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Speaker 3: one point four million right across the country. So a

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Speaker 3: lot of people are taking up that postal voting option.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So and is that sort of is that

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Speaker 1: a more popular take up rate than what you might

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Speaker 1: see people sort of trying to get a postal vote

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Speaker 1: or trying to put their application in for a postal vote,

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Speaker 1: say for a normal election.

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Speaker 3: I think the number is that five thousand I just

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Speaker 3: mentioned that so far, So that's the number of applications

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Speaker 3: that we received, and the postal vote packs which have

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Speaker 3: the ballot papers in them that we're starting to send out,

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Speaker 3: that's pretty indicative.

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Speaker 2: I think.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I think back to last year, the federal election

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Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two similar numbers, So I don't think

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Speaker 3: there's a greater take up of that necessarily, still little

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Speaker 3: bit time to go.

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Speaker 2: You'll have to see. And again the early voting numbers

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Speaker 2: are getting large reach ament.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll all keep it close on things now, tell

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Speaker 1: me you know, obviously the actual referendum is happening on

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Speaker 1: October fourteen, or that's the date, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: people are going to be wondering how quickly do you

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Speaker 1: think we're going to have an outcome?

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Speaker 3: Was difficult to say exactly what the when we'll be

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Speaker 3: able to announce more broadly the outcome of the referendum,

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Speaker 3: and it's the same for federal elections. It depends on

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Speaker 3: how many votes we still have outstanding. So if it's close,

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Speaker 3: those postal votes will.

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Speaker 2: Make a difference.

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Speaker 3: As I said, already one point four million postal votes

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Speaker 3: being sent out to people. That number will increase. So

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Speaker 3: it maybe that we're still waiting for those postal votes

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Speaker 3: to come back more broadly across Australia, and those postal

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Speaker 3: votes can come back up to thirteen days after polling,

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Speaker 3: so there's quite a window there for us to receive them.

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Speaker 2: So we'll just have to see.

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Speaker 3: How close things are on the night and then wait

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Speaker 3: to see those postwotes come back.

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Speaker 1: I guess it's always interesting to see just how long

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Speaker 1: it may or may not take for all those votes

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Speaker 1: to sort of be counted. You know. We always think, oh,

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Speaker 1: we'll know on October fourteen exactly what the outcome is.

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Speaker 1: But like you said, it's just going to be dependent

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Speaker 1: on how that vote sort of goes, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 3: If it's close, we'll have to wait and we just

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Speaker 3: hope the people will be patient. Everything that we have

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Speaker 3: at any point in time we will be counting, so

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Speaker 3: as soon as we can we will.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good stuff, Well, Jeff Bloom, we always appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: Australian Electoral Officer for the Northern Territory, Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for joining us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Keatie