Voting with no fixed address

Contributed by Anusha Goonetilleke, former Supervising Solicitor of Street Law, a program of Canberra Community Law, with acknowledgement to Liam Meagher for his assistance, and current to 1 June 2021. Reviewed in 2021 by Lydia Edwards and John Alati, Supervising Solicitor, Street Law. This information is sourced from factsheets developed by Street Law, a program of Canberra Community Law.

Voting not compulsory if homeless or itinerant

It is generally compulsory for all eligible Australian citizens to enrol and vote in federal elections, by-elections and referendums (see ss 101 and 245(1) Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth)), and for all eligible ACT residents to enrol and vote in ACT elections (see ss 73 and 129 Electoral Act 1992 (ACT)).

If a person is enrolled to vote and does not vote, they may be fined (unless they have a valid and sufficient reason for failing to vote, for example they are homeless or some other exception applies) (see s 245 Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth); s 129 Electoral Act 1992 (ACT)).

However, enrolling to vote and voting is not compulsory for people who do not have a permanent home (see ss 96, 101, 245(17)(c) Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth), and dictionary definition of itinerant elector; s 129(2)(d) Electoral Act 1992 (ACT)). If a person has been living in a permanent home for a month or more, they must enrol to vote as normal (see s 96(7) Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth)).

How to enrol to vote if you do not have a fixed address

If a person does not have a permanent home and would like to vote, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has a form called "Enrolment for persons with no fixed address", which can be filled in and given to the AEC. If a person does this, they may be enrolled to vote (see s 96(2A) Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth). In this situation, a person can enrol for the address where:

• they were last eligible to enrol;
• their close family are enrolled if they have not previously been eligible to enrol; or
• they were born if neither of the above apply; or
• they have the closest connection if none of the above applies (see s 96(2A) Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth)).