This weekend, the country will vote in the referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
If you're feeling confused or anxious about what to expect on vote day, then keep reading.
How do you vote?
Polls will open at 8am and close at 6pm local time.
When you go to vote, you will receive a ballot paper.
The ballot paper will read: "A proposed law to alter the constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?"
On the referendum ballot paper you need to indicate your vote by clearly writing:
YES in the box if you approve the proposed alteration, OR
NO in the box if you do not approve the proposed alteration.
Anything written on the ballot paper other than a YES or a NO might make your vote void. However, the Australian Electoral Commission says a tick will also be counted as 'yes', as has been the case for the past six referendums.
Voting options
Apply to be a postal voter. Early voting is now open in all states and territories and the deadline to apply is October 11 6pm.
How does a referendum become successful?
For a referendum to pass, it needs to reach a double majority. This means that the majority of votes in the majority of states need to be a yes for the referendum to be successful.
The votes of people in the ACT and Northern Territory will count towards the national total, but majorities in the territories .
To pass, a Referendum needs to achieve what is called a double majority. Source: Australian Electoral Commission.
When will we know if the referendum has passed?
The AEC will start counting ballots at 6pm local time in each state. As they are counted, votes will be displayed on their website where the AEC will display a running counter of the tally in each state. This means that once polls close at 6pm, people will be able to see results come in. Results will be updated every 90 seconds.
While the result being announced that night is a possibility, AEC representative Pat Callanan said that people should be prepared for a delay.
This is because postal votes can sometimes make the result or the count take longer, and the government is legally required to wait 13 days to receive all postal votes.
However, if it’s not a close race, that might be enough to declare a result that night.
Either way, the night of the referendum and the days that will follow, make sure you mob consider where you'll be and who you'll be with when the result of the vote is announced. Surround yourself with mob, friends and allies and look after yourselves.
