In Australia, voter registration is called enrolment. Enrolment is a prerequisite for voting at federal elections, by-elections and referendums, as well as all state and local government elections; and it is generally compulsory for enrolled persons to vote unless otherwise exempted or excused. Enrolment is compulsory for Australian citizens over 18 years of age who have lived at their current address for at least one month. Enrolment is not compulsory for persons with no fixed address who are not already enrolled. Residents in Australia who had been enrolled as British subjects on 25 January 1984, though not Australian citizens, continue to be enrolled, and cannot opt out of enrolment. (These comprise almost 163,000 voters in 2009.) For local government elections, an elector generally does not require to be an Australian citizen. Once enrolled, a person cannot opt out of enrolment. Enrolment is optional for 16- or 17-year-olds, but they cannot vote until they turn 18, and persons who have applied for Australian citizenship may also apply for provisional enrolment which takes effect on the granting of citizenship.
Once enrolled, every enrolled person must update their address details within 8 weeks of the change. This also applies to persons enrolled with no fixed address, and enrolled British subjects.
A person who has been convicted of treason or treachery and has not been pardoned, or who is serving a sentence of three years or longer for an offence against the law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory, is not entitled to be enrolled on the federal roll. They are removed from the federal electoral roll and must re-enroll when their disqualification ceases. The states may have different disqualifying periods, such as Victoria which has a disqualifying period of five year imprisonment.
Though enrolment is compulsory, at the close of rolls prior to the 2013 federal election, about 1.3 million people otherwise eligible to vote had not been enrolled, about one-third of whom were aged between 18 and 24. At June 2014, there were 14.9 million electors on the federal roll, and the number not enrolled was 1.2 million, resulting in a "participation rate" of 92.5%, up from 91.4% at 30 June 2013. At the close of roll for the 2019 federal election, the participation rate was 96.8%. At the 2013 federal election, there were 14,723,385 registered electors, of whom 93.2% actually voted (called the “turnout”). At the 2019 federal election, there were 16,419,543 registered electors, and the turnout was 91.9%.
History
The earliest electoral roll in Australia was prepared in 1843 by the then colony of New South Wales for the election by eligible landholders of 24 members of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and electoral rolls were prepared for each election thereafter. Following Australia's federation in 1901, state electoral rolls (successors of the previous colonial rolls) were used for federal elections until a permanent federal electoral roll was compiled in 1908. The federal voter qualifications and enrolment processes were uniform in all the states. For some years afterwards, the states continued to compile their own electoral rolls, but these have now been discontinued, except for Western Australia which continues to maintain a separate state electoral roll.
Enrolment on the federal electoral roll of eligible voters has been compulsory since 1911. However, Indigenous Australians were generally denied a vote until 1962, after which enrolment was voluntary until 1984. At the time, the requirement to register applied to "British subjects" over the age of 21. The voting age, and consequential requirement to register, was reduced to 18 in 1974. In 1984, the criteria for the right to vote, and requirement to register, became Australian citizenship. Residents in Australia who had been enrolled as British subjects on 25 January 1984 could continue to be enrolled, without taking Australian citizenship. The compulsory requirements continued to apply to them, so that they could not opt out of the enrolment, and must keep their details updated, and vote. (Today, these comprise about 9% of enrolments.)