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Speaker 1: And now we know that today's day that you can

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Speaker 1: begin early voting, but only some people are able to

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Speaker 1: joining us on the line right now is the director

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Speaker 1: of Operations with the Australian Electoral Sorry, the Australian Electoral

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Speaker 1: Officer Northern Territory Branch. I do apologize, Jeff, I think

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Speaker 1: we've certainly confused that title there. I'm Jeff Bloom. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Jeff, Good morning, Katie mate.

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Speaker 1: I know that today is today that some people are

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Speaker 1: eligible to vote early? Who can.

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Speaker 2: So you're right. First, of our face to face polling

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Speaker 2: services open today, so early voting centers across a number

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Speaker 2: of locations in the Northern Territory, and of course our

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Speaker 2: remote area mobile polling teams are out and about from today.

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Speaker 2: So for people that can't get to a polling place

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Speaker 2: on polling day, the optionnaire is for them to cast

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Speaker 2: an early vote for this election.

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Speaker 1: And so do you just rock up and say that

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Speaker 1: you're not able to vote on polling day for a

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Speaker 1: certain reason or do you have to get pre permission?

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Speaker 2: So there's eligibility criteria on our website. So for example,

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Speaker 2: if you're working on polling day or you're looking after

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Speaker 2: a sick family member for example, or any other reason

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Speaker 2: that you may not get to a polling place, including

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Speaker 2: if you don't live within a kilometers of a polling

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Speaker 2: place that's open on the day. And there's a couple

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Speaker 2: of other criteria as well, so a number of things

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Speaker 2: that might make people eligible. So look at the website

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Speaker 2: before you head down to the voting center, or you

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Speaker 2: can ask the polling staff when.

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Speaker 1: You arrive and where are you able to vote early?

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Speaker 2: So the early voting centers today, so we have one

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Speaker 2: in Darwin corner of Mitchell and Briggs Street. We have

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Speaker 2: one in the Darwin Airport precincts, so that's the Eaton

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Speaker 2: is the suburb there next to Kingpin. We also have

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Speaker 2: one in Palmerston fifteen Palmerston Circuit, and also one in

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Speaker 2: Coolinga and then further down the track we've got a

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Speaker 2: a PPDC as we call them, pre Pole Voting Center

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Speaker 2: in Catherine and Alice Springs.

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Speaker 1: So there's plenty around And are you expecting quite a

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Speaker 1: few people to vote early?

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Speaker 2: We really are. So if I think back to twenty

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Speaker 2: nineteen day one of our early voting centers, it was

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Speaker 2: really busy in the regions and also in and around

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Speaker 2: dah and so we expect a reasonable number of people

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Speaker 2: to turn out today. We're ready, We've got lots of

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Speaker 2: people working in those locations. Everyone's very excited. We'll I

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Speaker 2: think in terms of queues, if I think about that

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Speaker 2: day one and other times, there could be cues. We've

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Speaker 2: got some COVID measures in place there. We just ask

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Speaker 2: collectors to be patient. We'll get people through as quickly

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Speaker 2: as possible. We've got some learnings from other elections that

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Speaker 2: have been held around the country during COVID times, so

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Speaker 2: we think we've got a good plan as to how

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Speaker 2: we move people through quickly. But certainly lots of options

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Speaker 2: to vote, and we'd ask people to jump out early.

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Speaker 1: So Jeff, do you know if you've had big crowds

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Speaker 1: down there so far this morning at any of the

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Speaker 1: polling centers.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean getting some reports from my team. All

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Speaker 2: of our centers opened on time this morning, so that

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Speaker 2: was a thirty this morning. I haven't heard that we've

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Speaker 2: had those ques that I'm st alluding to, and I

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Speaker 2: think things are running smoothly in terms of numbers. We'll

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Speaker 2: know at the end of the day once we start

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Speaker 2: to analyze how many votes were issued and that's going

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Speaker 2: to give us a sense of what we might expect

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Speaker 2: over the next two weeks.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, are you expecting voters to turn out in record numbers?

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Speaker 1: Has there been quite a bit of work to try

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Speaker 1: and make sure that everybody does turn up and vote.

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Speaker 2: Well, A communication is definitely out there. We've dropped information

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Speaker 2: in the people's letterboxes. We've got radio ads, TV ads,

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Speaker 2: social media ads. We're trying to make everything sure everyone

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Speaker 2: knows the opportunities there to vote. It's all here and

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Speaker 2: now the website has all the polling locations there. So

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Speaker 2: we're doing everything we can to alert people to what

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Speaker 2: their options are and again we're just encouraging everyone to

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Speaker 2: be involved.

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Speaker 1: Well. Jeff Bloom, the Australian electoral Officer for the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: We always appreciate your time. Thanks for having a chat

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Speaker 1: with me today.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you