Mobile polling to be increased for mental health and aged care facilities

By Georgia Tacey

May 12, 2023

Increased mobility: AEC mobile polling teams will be out and about for the upcoming referendum. Photo by Caitlyn Grant

The Australian Electoral Commission has announced that for the first time, mobile polling teams will be deployed to residential mental health facilities for the referendum.

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Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said there would be an increase in mobile polling stations at healthcare facilities for the upcoming referendum.

“We’re working hard to ensure our mobile services reach people who experience the biggest societal or circumstantial challenges to accessing other forms of voting,” he said.

“In addition to mental health facilities, mobile polling is also being offered to residential aged care facilities — something that wasn’t possible on a wide scale during the 2022 federal election due to the pandemic.”

Mobile polling teams will deliver in-person voting services to residents at their healthcare facility, either in a communal area or, where required, a bed-to-bed service.

Mr Rogers said that if a healthcare facility did not accept or was not eligible for the mobile polling service, a dedicated AEC support team would contact it once the referendum had been called, to provide information and resources on voting options.

“This is a concerted effort to decrease barriers that prevent residents of healthcare facilities from voting, by ensuring that resources are deployed to settings that need them the most,” he said.

“Australians are fortunate to have an electoral system not enjoyed by so many around the world — a system where the needs of different groups of Australian voters are factored in.”