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Speaker 1: As we know, the federal election has been called, voters

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Speaker 1: heading to the polls on Saturday May third to vote

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Speaker 1: for the country's next leaders. It's going to be a

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Speaker 1: busy time for the Australian Electoral Commission which conducts the election.

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Speaker 1: And joining me in well on the show it is

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

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Jeff.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Good to have you on the show. Now, Jeff, the

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Speaker 1: date has been set. What work is now ahead for

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Speaker 1: the AEC.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's plenty going on. I can imagine it's a

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Speaker 2: little bit for an eetic at our end today day one,

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Speaker 2: but the close of roles period has started, so people

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Speaker 2: have electors have seven days from now effectively, so next

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Speaker 2: Monday at APM the rolls closed for this election. So

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Speaker 2: if anyone needs to update there Enroment, now's the time.

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Speaker 2: Whether you've moved to the territory or whether you've just

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Speaker 2: changed your address within the territory, jump onto the AAC

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Speaker 2: website and update you're in ROMed.

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Speaker 1: So the government's obviously now in ken you take in mode.

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Speaker 1: What are the processes for the electoral Commission in terms of,

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Speaker 1: you know, making sure that everybody is well on the

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Speaker 1: roll and ready to vote.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's a few things there. So the first thing

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Speaker 2: to say is the roles in really good shape. So

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Speaker 2: nationally we have something towards ninety eight percent of eligible

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Speaker 2: Australians on the role. In the Northern Territory we're sitting

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Speaker 2: at around ninety four percent eligible territories on the role,

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Speaker 2: which is a fantastic number. We've never had this complete role,

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Speaker 2: or not as complete as it is now. And also

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Speaker 2: in terms of youth's around about eighty four percent of

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Speaker 2: youth that's eighteen to twenty four year olds on the

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Speaker 2: electoral role currently. And then of course for alber Geltarre,

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Speaker 2: Straatee Island are electors, there's around eighty eight percent of

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Speaker 2: eligible people on the role. So the roles in really

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Speaker 2: really good shape. But of course any changes to enrollment

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Speaker 2: that people need to make before the election now for

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Speaker 2: time to do that.

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Speaker 1: We also know that there has been some boundary changes

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Speaker 1: in the top end when it comes to the next

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Speaker 1: election that's now on May third. Talk us through those

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Speaker 1: for anybody listening this morning who may not be aware,

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Speaker 1: and how you've notified people that they may have indeed

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Speaker 1: changed electorates.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right. The redistribution which started in twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: four and was finalized on the fourth and March this year.

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Speaker 2: So that's a change to the electoral boundaries between the

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Speaker 2: Division of Solomon Division of Ingiari. So effectively there's a

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Speaker 2: number of electors that five thousand electors in total in

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Speaker 2: the suburbs of Mitchell, farah Za, Coolie Johnson and a

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Speaker 2: little bit of Yarawanga. So in that Palmston area all

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Speaker 2: come back into the Division of Solomon out of the

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Speaker 2: Division of Ingiari. And the reason that's occurred is that

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Speaker 2: we need, according to the legislation or the same number

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Speaker 2: of enrolled voters in each of those divisions. That wasn't

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Speaker 2: the case, so that adjustment it's now been made. The

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Speaker 2: good news is for anyone living in those suburbs that

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Speaker 2: have now changed divisions, we're writing to people in the

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Speaker 2: process of writing to people, and we'll make sure that

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Speaker 2: they're aware that they're in a different division and they're

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Speaker 2: all part of Palmston and the Division of Solomon.

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Speaker 1: Now you said before about ninety four percent of territorians

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Speaker 1: are enrolled to vote. If I've heard correctly, how many

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Speaker 1: does that equate to?

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Speaker 2: It's something over one hundred and fifty thousand. I've got

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Speaker 2: that number right in front of me now. But it

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Speaker 2: is over one hundred and fifty thousand. So that's a

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Speaker 2: lot of people, and it's a big workload for us

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Speaker 2: to manage over the next five weeks up to polling day,

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Speaker 2: and of course early voting starts two weeks prior to

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Speaker 2: polling day. There'll be plenty of opportunities for people to vote,

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Speaker 2: and we've got more people on the electoral role than

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Speaker 2: we've ever had before going into any electoral event.

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Speaker 1: I was going to ask, obviously, plenty of people messaging

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Speaker 1: us on Friday and going, Katie, do you know that

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Speaker 1: we've got public holiday on May third? What's that going

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Speaker 1: to mean in terms of us having to go and

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Speaker 1: vote on this sorry, on Monday the fifth? What's that

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Speaker 1: mean in terms of us having to go and vote

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Speaker 1: on the third. But as you've just touched on, we

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Speaker 1: can vote early, can't we?

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Speaker 2: We can? And good's fair to say that during past

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Speaker 2: elections the number of people voting prior to polling day

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Speaker 2: has increased. If I think about the federal election twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two, we had over sixty percent of voters voted

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Speaker 2: before polling day. So there's a range of services involved there.

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Speaker 2: So there's postal voters, people attending an early voting center,

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Speaker 2: and also services delivered to our mobile teams and our

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Speaker 2: remote mobile teams. So voting before polling day is very

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Speaker 2: very common now and more people voting prior to the

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Speaker 2: day now.

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Speaker 1: In terms of those that do maybe need to secure

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Speaker 1: a postal vote, what do they need to do? How

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Speaker 1: do they go about doing that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the first thing is to say in relation

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Speaker 2: to postal votes is you know that the first protocol

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Speaker 2: would always be to vote on polling day. If you

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Speaker 2: can't do that, then you can access an early vote

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Speaker 2: through an early voting center. But if you are unable

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Speaker 2: to attend one of our face to face services, that

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Speaker 2: postal voting option is available to electors. There's a postal

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Speaker 2: vote application which is available on our website right now,

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Speaker 2: Act dot au and people just fill that one out,

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Speaker 2: that'll go into our system, and the ballot papers, once

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Speaker 2: they've been printed, which is still still a good two

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Speaker 2: weeks away now, will be delivered straight to them.

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Speaker 1: Jeff, I know you again. You touched on this a

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Speaker 1: moment ago. In terms of us being able to vote

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Speaker 1: early two weeks out, what date will those early polling

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Speaker 1: centers open and where will people be able to vote?

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Speaker 2: Well, you're right in terms of public holidays, they do

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Speaker 2: have an impact because of the May three polling day

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Speaker 2: and the two week period we have available for early voting.

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Speaker 2: The first Monday of early voting is Easter Monday, the

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Speaker 2: twenty first, so that's certainly something we had eyes on

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Speaker 2: that when we thought or knew that May three was

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Speaker 2: a possibility. And the last day of that week is

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Speaker 2: Anzac Day, so effectively there's two days where people won't

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Speaker 2: be able to access those services. So it's three days

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Speaker 2: available in the first week for early voting and then

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Speaker 2: the full five days in the second week. Should also

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Speaker 2: add that we're operating on the Saturday after an Zac Day,

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Speaker 2: so that option will be available to people that The

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Speaker 2: locations of the voting centers, we're just just determining those now.

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Speaker 2: We imagine we're dealing with the providers of the polling

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Speaker 2: places that we're looking to secure, and once all those

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Speaker 2: contracts assigned, we'll have that information available on our on

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Speaker 2: the AAC website.

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Speaker 1: Well, no doubt you and I'll probably spend plenty of

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Speaker 1: times before then. Anyway, Jeff, good to catch up with

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Speaker 1: you this morning, mate, I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks so much, Coatie, thank you