Since 2007 there has been a strong trend towards pre-poll voting meaning fewer people vote on election day.
In 1993, 87.7% of people voted on election day in their home electorate. Only 3.2% of votes were cast at a pre-poll booth, another 6% were cast on election day away from home and 3% were cast by post.
Pre-poll voting increased gradually over the subsequent decade, reaching 5.8% in 2004. For the past three elections, pre-poll voting has shot up. In 2013, only 68.5% of people cast an ordinary vote on election day. More than 18% of votes were pre-poll and 4.7% were absent votes.
This trend isn’t solely an Australian phenomenon. About one-third of votes were cast early in the 2012 US presidential election, and almost 30% voted early at the 2014 New Zealand election, which was more than double the rate in 2011.
In Australia, pre-poll voting grew quickly at state elections. One-quarter of votes at the 2014 Victorian election were pre-poll, and records were also set at the 2015 state elections in New South Wales and Queensland.
Pre-poll voting has benefited from legislative changes, and electoral commissions have embraced it.
Since 2010, pre-poll votes in the voter’s home electorate are treated as ordinary votes, and counted on election night. It’s now possible to know which votes were cast at each pre-poll booth, just like election-day votes. Laws have also made it easier for a voter to qualify to cast a pre-poll vote.
The Australian Electoral Commission has expanded the number of pre-poll booths so most seats now have a few. In 1993, there were 382 pre-poll booths. In 2013, that number had jumped to 945.
In the lead-up to the election, the AEC announced plans to close a number of election day booths, in part because of the shift towards pre-poll voting.
Pre-poll voting also begins earlier. It now takes place across the last three weeks of the campaign, and more pre-poll booths will open earlier in this period.
Pre-poll voting is likely to be more popular in 2016 because the election falls during school holidays.
Victoria, Queensland and Northern Territory school holidays start the week before the election, and NSW, Western Australia and the ACT begin their holidays on election day.
Elections are usually scheduled to avoid school holidays. The last election held during school holidays was in 1998, and there was a 50% increase in pre-poll voting – from 3.8% in 1996 to 5.9% in 1998.
Pre-poll voting opens on Tuesday across Australia. In 2013, 2.5 million people voted at pre-poll booths. This time well over 3 million Australians are expected to have cast their vote before 2 July.
