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Speaker 1: Now, with just days to go until the Voice referendum,

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Speaker 1: campaigners on both sides are in their final push for

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Speaker 1: voters now. Polls estimate that around a third of Australians

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Speaker 1: are still undecided. But from all accounts, plenty of Territorians

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Speaker 1: have already been out to vote. I went out yesterday

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Speaker 1: and it was a pretty easy process. I've got to say.

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Speaker 1: Straight in on Smith Street there now joining me on

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Speaker 1: the line to tell us more about where we can vote,

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Speaker 1: how voting's gone so far as well. Is the Australian

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

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Speaker 1: to you, Jeff, Good morning Katie. Now Jeff, plenty of

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Speaker 1: people have already been out to vote, but some haven't.

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Speaker 1: I guess it's a bit of a reminder of people

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Speaker 1: that they need to plan where they're going to vote,

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Speaker 1: when they're going to vote, because they need to make

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Speaker 1: sure they do it by Saturday or on Saturday.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right, and we've been saying from the beginning,

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Speaker 2: remembering that the writ for the referend was issued over

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Speaker 2: four weeks ago, it seems like longer than that, but

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Speaker 2: in any case, we're in that last week of early

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Speaker 2: voting as you say, and then we've got our polling

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Speaker 2: day services, so important people have a bit of a

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Speaker 2: think about what it is. If they don't think they

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Speaker 2: can get to a polling place on Saturday, then got

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Speaker 2: three days at one of our early voting centers to vote.

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Speaker 1: Jeff, can you remind us where are those early voting

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Speaker 1: centers so that people know exactly where they can go

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Speaker 1: and get this done.

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Speaker 2: So the early voting center in Darwin is at fifty

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Speaker 2: one Smith Street and that's been a busy location. Fortunately,

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Speaker 2: seven thousand people have gone through that polling place since

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Speaker 2: it opened Monday week last Monday week. So also at

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Speaker 2: Eton which is opposite the ice skating center out there

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Speaker 2: in Osgood Drive, So what have we got there? Around

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Speaker 2: eight and a half thousand people have gone through there

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Speaker 2: so far. In Palmerston and also in cool Linger. Don't

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Speaker 2: have those addresses in front of me necessarily, but that

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Speaker 2: information is available on our website. So around forty six

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Speaker 2: thousand territories have already voted in this event. So that's

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Speaker 2: a really goodly voting turnout.

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Speaker 1: That does seem like a good number. How does that

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Speaker 1: compare to other sort of elections or other polling days.

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Speaker 2: I think it's pretty similar, to be honest, If I

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Speaker 2: think back to the federal election last year in twenty two,

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Speaker 2: we had very similar numbers. So people are taking the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to vote early. Noting that it's from our perspective,

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Speaker 2: it's not really convenience voting. It's really for people that

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Speaker 2: can't vote on polling day, whatever reason that might be,

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Speaker 2: that they can have that opportunity to cast that early vote.

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Speaker 1: Now, in terms of filling out the form, to me,

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Speaker 1: it seemed like an incredibly easy process yesterday. It's just

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Speaker 1: yes or no on the form. But there's been some

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Speaker 1: conjecture about this, whether people put across or a tick.

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Speaker 1: What's the go Jeff, There.

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Speaker 2: Has been a lot of discussion. Katie and were just

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Speaker 2: steaking to a very simple message. Please follow the instructions

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Speaker 2: from the ballot paper issuing officer and also written on

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Speaker 2: the ballot paper. Couple of opportunities there for people. I

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Speaker 2: understand exactly what is required, and that is to vote

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Speaker 2: or sorry, to write yes or no in full in

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Speaker 2: English on the ballot paper, and that's the best way

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Speaker 2: to ensure your votes counted.

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Speaker 1: Jeff. Obviously we're discussing the number of people that have

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Speaker 1: already voted in the territory. How has it gone out

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Speaker 1: in our remote communities. Have you had a good take

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Speaker 1: up of people actually voting early?

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Speaker 2: We have. We've our teams have been out there for

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Speaker 2: nearly three weeks now, so it's a longer voting period

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Speaker 2: for remote communities. It's been challenging, but it always is

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Speaker 2: every time we deliver a service across that very large

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Speaker 2: area right across the division Lingiari one point three million

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Speaker 2: square kilometers. It's tough, and I guess the difference this

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Speaker 2: time is that it's an October event. The last two

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Speaker 2: federal elections have been in May. It's cooler out there

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Speaker 2: and there's a little bit more stability in terms of

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Speaker 2: people being in those locations. I think it's true to

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Speaker 2: say now there's a lot more people moving around, including

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Speaker 2: moving into other locations, regional towns and so forth. So

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Speaker 2: it's been tricky and we're having to go back to

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Speaker 2: a number of locations where there's been poor turnout in

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Speaker 2: the first instance. We're going back to give those local

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Speaker 2: people another opportunity to have this.

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Speaker 1: Say now, tell me in terms of the results, when

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Speaker 1: are they going to get counted? When are all the

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Speaker 1: you know, the votes going to get counted and when

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Speaker 1: are we sort of I guess it's going to depend

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Speaker 1: how clean cut you know, either yes or the no

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Speaker 1: vote goes, and just how many people vote. But when

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Speaker 1: do you anticipate that we're going to sort of see

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Speaker 1: the results?

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Speaker 2: Well, you're right, it's it's difficult to know. And I

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Speaker 2: have answered this question a number of times in relation

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Speaker 2: to federal electoral events elections and now they're referendum. What

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Speaker 2: we'll do here in the Northern Territory and the AC

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Speaker 2: more broadly cross the country is count every vote that

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Speaker 2: we have in our hands in our position, and that's

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Speaker 2: really important that we do that. So for us here

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Speaker 2: in the Northern Territory or our early voting centers, our

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Speaker 2: mobile teams and our remote mobile will count all of

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Speaker 2: those votes. And it's true to say that if the

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Speaker 2: vote is close, if the numbers are close, it'll be

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Speaker 2: very difficult for us as an agency to declare anything

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Speaker 2: very unlikely. In fact, we won't. We can't because we

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Speaker 2: still have a lot of what they call declaration votes,

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Speaker 2: votes that there coming back to us in envelopes, postal

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Speaker 2: votes and votes from me to state that they're coming

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Speaker 2: back here, so we won't be able to There might

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Speaker 2: be other commentators that are talking more about likely outcomes

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Speaker 2: that we certainly wouldn't be in a position to do

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Speaker 2: that on Saturday night.

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Speaker 1: Well, Jeff, anything else we should be aware of before

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Speaker 1: Saturday before we let you go. I know it's a

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Speaker 1: busy time for you guys, and hoping as many Territorians

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Speaker 1: get out to vote as possible.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right. We've got around eight hundred polling staff

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Speaker 2: working for us in those early voting centers and we'll

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Speaker 2: be on the day. It's great to have all those

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Speaker 2: people on board. They're doing a great job and we're

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Speaker 2: just encouraging everybody that hasn't voted so far get to

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Speaker 2: that early voting center, all one of those pilling places

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Speaker 2: on Saturday.

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Speaker 1: Well, Jeff Bloom, always good to speak with you. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so very much for your time in the lead

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Speaker 1: up to this referendum. We've very much appreciated it.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Katie, Thank you