The referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament will be held on 14 October. The process leading up to the day has been very different to a normal federal or state election, but the counting and the results on the night will happen in a way Australians are more familiar with.
So how will the votes be counted and displayed, and when will we know the result?
When is the voice to parliament referendum and how can I vote?
It’s on Saturday, 14 October. Voting will feel pretty familiar to an election. Thousands of polling places will open around the country on 14 October between 8am and 6pm (local times). Those polling places will be very similar to where you vote on an election day. You can also request a postal ballot or pre-poll.
For more, read Amy Remeikis’ comprehensive voting explainer, and find your closest polling place on the Australian Electoral Commission website.
What should I put on the referendum ballot paper?
The AEC advises voters to write only “yes” or “no”, in English. The AEC has told voters not to use a tick or cross.
How will voice referendum results be displayed?
Just like a normal election, the AEC starts counting ballots at 6pm local time in each state. All votes cast on 14 October, and the majority of early votes, will be counted that night.
The AEC says votes will be displayed on their “tally room” website and other channels, broken down by electorate and voting booth. There’ll be one major difference from a normal election – due to the referendum’s required “double majority”, the AEC will also display a running counter of the tally in each state.
A constitutional change requires a double majority: that is, a national majority of all votes, plus a majority of votes in a majority of states (that is, four out of the six states).
For the yes campaign to succeed, it needs to win a national majority and a majority in four states. If the yes side fails to win either the national majority, or only wins three or fewer states, the referendum is unsuccessful.
Results will be updated every 90 seconds. The AEC says there will be clear graphs for the national majority and the states count.
When will the voice referendum results be known?
The first results will arrive shortly after 6pm on the east coast.
But when we’ll know the final results is the big question. The AEC has said it cannot guarantee a result on the night. “The timing of a formal result declared by the AEC is entirely dependent on the margin in a state/territory, or nationally, against the number of votes yet to be counted,” it said in a statement.
Basically, that means the AEC will only officially declare the result when it is mathematically certain.
When asked last month whether there would be a definitive result on 14 October, electoral commissioner Tom Rogers replied, “I don’t know”.
Theoretically, the ballot being a simple yes/no question rather than the complicated preferential system of a federal election may mean votes can be counted quicker. Rogers said he expected the AEC to count votes quicker than in a general election, but if results are tight, a definitive result may not be known for some time.
Add to that the fact the AEC has to wait 13 days for all postal votes to arrive, and that about 1.2 million people have applied for a postal vote this referendum. If a result is very tight, those 1.2m votes could make a difference.
Also remember that polls close and votes start being counted after 6pm local time in each state. The Australian east coast is currently three hours ahead of Western Australia, so we won’t hear official numbers from Western Australia until 9pm on the east coast.
How is the referendum majority counted?
The AEC has reported 17,676,347 on the electoral roll, a record number.
But the majority is calculated on a majority of formal votes lodged – not an absolute majority of all voters enrolled. That is to say, if voter turnout is lower, then a majority is based on that number.
Where can I learn more?
The Australian Electoral Commission’s website has all the information you will need, both before the referendum and also on the day.
Guardian Australia will also be reporting and publishing results on 14 October.
