Early Australian Electoral Roll Closure Could Disenfranchise You!

In this year's Australian federal election tens of thousands of eligible Australians, including many Australians overseas, will be prevented from voting. Will you be one of them?

The Federal Government passed extraordinary legislation in 2006 that will close the rolls earlier than you expect.

If you are not on the electoral roll, and need to enrol afresh, the rolls will close at 8 pm on the day on which the writ is issued for the election. The writ is usually issued the day the Prime Minister calls the election or the very next day.

If you are currently enrolled, but need to change your details with the Australian Electoral Commission, the rolls will close at 8 pm Australian time on the third working day after the writ is issued.

In the last election, 83,000 first-time voters enrolled in the first week after the election was called. Hundreds of thousands more registered at their new address, including many overseas Australians. But this time they won't get that chance. There'll be virtually no time once the election is called to get your enrolment in order.

That's why whether you're enrolled to vote or not, there's a crucial role for you to play right now. Click on the link below to demand this early roll closing law be repealed, and alert friends and family in Australia and abroad to enrol and update their details with the AEC promptly.

Sign the GetUp! petition now, and help GetUp! reach its target of 25,000 signatures on this issue: www.getup.org.au/campaign/DontLetThemStopYouFromVoting

In addition to this new hurdle of early roll closing, overseas Australians already face special disenfranchisement issues: if you are overseas, and have been wiped off the electoral roll or were never on it, and it's more than three years since you moved abroad to live, Australian law presently prohibits you from (re)enrolling from abroad. We estimate that there are approximately 500,000 expat Aussies in this situation. That's the equivalent of 5 or 6 federal electorates.

Contribute to the special GetUp! blog on this subject at: http://www.getup.org.au/blog_details.asp?blog_post_id=132

Everything you need to know about voting in Australia while you live abroad is contained in the Southern Cross Group information sheet available at: http://www.southern-cross-group.org/

Thanks for doing your bit to spread the word!

The Southern Cross Group and GetUp!