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ABC News
ABC News
Lifestyle
Matthew Doran

Extra 90,000 Australians enrolled ahead of same-sex marriage postal survey

The ABS hopes to begin mailing out ballot papers next month.

An extra 90,000 Australians have added their names to the electoral roll since the announcement of the postal survey on legalising same-sex marriage.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has released the data after Thursday evening's deadline for voters to update their details ahead of the optional ballot.

The AEC received 765,000 requests from eligible voters to either join the electoral roll or update their details to ensure postal ballot papers arrived at the right address.

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers suggested it was a significant result, because there was a "trend throughout recent electoral cycles for enrolment rates to dip mid-cycle".

In comparison, the AEC processed over 687,000 enrolment transactions — voters either updating details or joining the electoral roll — with about 132,000 of those enrolling to vote before the 2016 federal election.

Despite its job in managing the electoral roll, the AEC will not be managing the postal survey.

That task falls to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Same-sex marriage advocates are challenging whether the Government has the power to order the postal survey in the High Court.

The ABS hopes to begin mailing out ballot papers next month, with a date set in early November for the votes to be returned.

If there is a result in favour of same-sex marriage being legalised, the Federal Government would then allow a conscience vote in Parliament.

The AEC is still processing 165,000 requests to update electoral roll details.

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