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Voting FAQ’s

by | Tue, Sep 5 2017

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Australian Marriage Act postal survey voting faq's

*The information below has been sourced from the Australian Bureau Of Statistics website.

Return to our
Australian Marriage Law Information Portal

The Treasurer, under the Census and Statistics Act 1905, has directed the Australian Statistician to request statistical information from all Australians on the Commonwealth Electoral Roll, as to their views on whether or not the law should be changed to allow same sex couples to marry.

Who can participate?

The collection of data shall be limited to those Australians who are enrolled on the Commonwealth Electoral Roll (or those who’ve made a valid request for enrolment) by the end of 24 August 2017 local time (ie midnight).

The Minister has amended the Direction to the Australian Statistician to confirm that Australians who are enrolled on the Electoral Roll and eligible to participate in a Federal Election, will be included in the Survey. People who become eligible for enrolment after 24 August, for example those who turn 18 after 24 August, will not be included in the survey.

Silent Electors

Silent electors are electors who do not have their addresses visible on the electoral roll. Details of Silent Electors will at no time, be passed to or known by the ABS.

The AEC will forward all survey materials to Silent Electors for the ABS in an AEC envelope with an AEC covering letter. Survey responses can be returned to the ABS through the normal process, with all responses being anonymous. AEC have established a hotline for Silent Electors enquiries about this process. Silent Electors can contact the AEC from 9am to 5pm AEST, Monday to Friday using the phone number at Contact Us.

Special Strategies to support participation

Whilst it is expected that nearly all eligible people in Australia will be able to participate using the postal service, the ABS will implement a number of strategies to ensure all eligible Australians have the opportunity to respond to the survey. Please see the Special Strategies for participation section for more information.

Mailout of Survey Forms

An Australian Marriage Law Survey Form will be sent by post to every eligible Australian. It will be sent to the address on the Commonwealth Electoral Roll.

Survey forms will be mailed as soon as practical over a two week period from 12 September.

The package containing the survey form will include a reply paid envelope and instructions on how to complete the survey form.

Eligible Australians who will not be at their enrolled address during the mailout period should arrange to have their mail forwarded or can use the online enquiry form, or contact the Australian Marriage Law Survey Information Line to arrange for a survey form to be dispatched to their nominated address. Please note that a replacement form will be sent to your newly nominated address after 18 September and your first form will be invalidated. The Information Line is available at Contact Us. and is open 7 days a week, 8am – 8pm (local time).

The survey envelope is designated to be for the survey response only and is not a channel for correspondence, complaints or other communication. Any extraneous material inserted in the envelope with the survey form will be destroyed and, due to processing machinery or possible contamination, may result in the survey form also being destroyed and therefore not processed.

Replacement of Survey Forms 

Lost or spoilt survey forms can be replaced. Requests must be made by the eligible Australian themselves or a legally authorised person (ie a person with power of attorney, authorised carer for person with severe disability etc).

Requests for replacement materials will only be accepted until 6pm 18 October 2017 and details on how to do this will be published on the ABS website when finalised.

Completion of the Survey Form

The survey form asks only one question: “Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?”

Completion of the form is voluntary. 

Those who choose to not complete the form are encouraged to destroy it by tearing it into two or more parts.

Survey forms need to be completed in accordance with the instructions provided in the survey materials. This material will also be published on the ABS website.

Each eligible Australian is responsible for the completion of their own survey form.

Consistent with practice during statistical collection activity like Australian Censuses, the ABS encourages people needing assistance to complete their survey form, to seek help from someone they trust.

Return of Survey Forms

Only one survey response is accepted for each eligible Australian.

ABS encourages the timely return of survey forms.

ABS strongly encourages eligible Australians to return the completed survey to the ABS address on the return envelope by 6pm on 27 October 2017. ABS cannot accept surveys received at the address after 6pm on 7 November 2017.

Processing of Survey Forms

Survey responses will be progressively processed during the collection period, however results will not be released until 15 November 2017.

Measures will be put in place to ensure the secrecy of each survey response and the integrity of the process. These measures will detect any attempted multiple responses associated with an individual eligible Australian with only the first valid response counted.

There are potential penalties for providing false or misleading information to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Secrecy

ABS will keep the identity of all respondents separate from their survey responses at all times. The barcode on the survey form will be used for “mark-in” purposes only and is a single-use, anonymous, code. No person who sees or has any access to any completed forms will know both the name of eligible Australians and the related single-use code.

The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey will ask only a single question. While the Electoral Division for each response will also be captured, there will be no linkage of survey responses to other data (and any linkage will not be possible given the separation of responses from any identifying information and the use of an anonymous mark-in code).

Survey responses will be anonymous and protected under the secrecy provisions of the Census and Statistics Act 1905.

All ABS officers sign a secrecy and fidelity undertaking, legally binding them to never release information collected under the Census and Statistics Act 1905. Penalties include fines of up to $25,200 or imprisonment for up to 2 years, or both, for anybody convicted of breaching this obligation.

Publishing Statistical Information

The Australian Statistician will publish the statistical information on 15 November 2017 through the ABS Website.

Results will be official statistics in the form of a count of response (Yes, No and Invalid) by Commonwealth Electoral Division (CED), State/Territory and National. There will also be a count of the number of eligible Australians who have not participated in each CED, State/Territory and National.

Information from the Electoral Roll will be used independently to produce a participation rate by age and gender for each Commonwealth Electoral Division (CED), State/Territory and National. Participation will be published by CED by gender, for each of the following age groups: 18-19 years, 20-24 years, 25-29 years, 30-34 years, 35-39 years, 40-44 years, 45-49 years, 50-54 years. 55-59 years, 60-64 years, 65-69 years, 70-74 years, 75-79 years, 80-84 years and 85+ years. The participation characteristics will not be available for Silent Electors and some other participants where Electoral Information is not complete, and these will be reported as “age unavailable” or “gender unavailable” in the tables.

The answer to the survey question is anonymous so the ABS will not be able to provide a count of Yes, No and Invalid by age or gender.

Destruction of materials collected

The completed survey material and envelopes will be securely destroyed within 60 days of the publication of the data collection results.

Assurance of Integrity and Quality 

The Australian Statistician will ensure that the collection of the statistical information is undertaken with a high level of transparency, integrity and assurance in the accuracy of the data.

The ABS has in place robust systems and controls for the processing, interpreting and publishing of statistical data and will be employing these systems and controls in relation to the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey.

The survey assurance process will include external observers . External observers will be nominated by Commonwealth parliamentarians by mid-September. These individuals will be able to observe the process of recognition of the marks on a sample of survey forms as yes, no or invalid responses.

The ABS will also engage an independent auditor to monitor a number of processes such as the dispatch of survey forms, the receipt and destruction of forms.

The Australian Statistician will publish a statement on the quality and integrity of the survey on 15 November 2017.

Key Dates

Thursday, 24 August 2017 – Electoral Roll closes for new enrolments or changes to enrolments (midnight local time).

Tuesday, 12 September 2017 – Commencement of mailing of forms and collection period.

Wednesday, 18 October 2017 – Requests for replacement material closes (6pm local time).

Friday, 27 October 2017 – The date all eligible Australians will be strongly encouraged to return their form by.

Tuesday, 7 November (6pm EST) – Responses received after this date will not be processed.

Wednesday, 15 November 2017 – Statistics released.

Return to our
Australian Marriage Law Information Portal

*The information above has been sourced from the Australian Bureau Of Statistics website.