The AEC is urging people who cannot make it to vote in-person, and need to cast a postal vote in the 2025 federal election, to apply early or risk missing out.
Every effort is made for applications lodged late in the election period, including using priority and express mail services, but depending on a voter’s circumstances, there may be a chance it is not received in time.
“Australia has some of the best in-person voting options in the world. If a voter can turn up to a voting centre, then that is what they must do. “
A list of early voting centres will be available on the AEC website soon. Early voting starts on Tuesday 22 April.
Each federal election there are around 2-2.5 million postal vote applications received by the AEC – many of those arrive late in the election period. All require local roll verification checks, processing and ballot pack printing prior to delivery.
The AEC is not only urging people needing a postal vote to apply early but also to apply directly through the AEC.
- AEC warning: Third-party postal vote applications
- Voters can apply for a postal vote now by visiting https://www.aec.gov.au/pva
Key information:
- 2,389,751 postal votes were cast at the previous federal election in 2022.
- The legislated deadline to apply for a postal vote is 6pm local time on Wednesday 30 April
- Any application after Thursday 24 April risks your postal vote pack not arriving in time, depending on your circumstances.
- Your postal vote must be completed on or before election day, Saturday 3 May 2025 and returned to the AEC before Friday 16 May 2025, or your vote will not be included in the count.
Attributable to A/g Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope
“Australians are very fortunate when it comes to the voting options that are available to them but that doesn’t mean there is no need to plan, and potentially act early.”
“You should only apply for a postal vote if you cannot make it to a voting centre, either on election day or in the two week early voting period.”
“If you need a postal vote, there’s no time to waste. The best time to apply was yesterday. The second-best time to apply is right now.”
“You can apply online, including via your mobile, and it only takes a few minutes.”
“We can’t print or send postal vote packs until after the candidates are announced at the end of next week and ballot papers are printed, but we want to be in the position at that point to send as many as we can.”
“There’s a real risk if you wait until the last week to apply for a postal vote at this election.”
“For applications received in the final week, we undertake local printing across the country and use express deliveries but when we’re not given sufficient time, we can’t always guarantee delivery prior to election day.”
“We work very closely with Australia Post to do everything possible to fulfill every postal vote application we can. We really deeply value this partnership – it enables more than two million people to vote when they can’t make it to a voting centre.”
