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Institute for Social Research

Citizenship and Government - Projects


Bringing Democracy Home - Enfranchising Australia's Homeless Citizens

More information
Australia is a highly inclusive and representative democracy. Universal adult suffrage was achieved for most Australians several generations ago and enrolling to vote has been compulsory for all Australians, excluding Indigenous Australians, since 1911. Compulsory voting was introduced in 1924. Indigenous Australians were fully enfranchised in 1962, and in 1984 it became compulsory for them both to enrol and to vote. Since then Australia has worked to operate an open electoral system with minimal hurdles to enrolling and voting. To achieve this goal, state and federal electoral commissions have expended considerable effort to ensure all Australians have access to the ballot.

Do people experiencing homelessness have the same access to the ballot as other Australians?
In 2002, concerns were raised by the Council for Homeless Persons, the Big Issue and the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH) that existing enrolment and voting procedures effectively disenfranchised Australia's homeless population. It was argued that the lack of a permanent residential address should not disenfranchise a significant, and already severely disadvantaged, group of Australians if our claims of representative democracy were to ring true.

In submissions to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) it was suggested that changes were needed to ensure homeless people were able to enrol and to vote. The recommendations focused on:

  • working with homeless services to help their clients enrol and vote
  • increasing the awareness of homeless people about democratic processes in general and voting in particular
  • making voting more accessible and less punitive for people experiencing homelessness
  • revamping existing itinerant elector provisions to make them more relevant to the circumstances of homeless people.

The JSCEM response
In the 2003 Report of the Inquiry into the 2001 Federal Election, the JSCEM indicated its interest in the issue of homeless voters by recommending that the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC):

  • amend existing itinerant elector provisions to make their applicability to homeless persons clear
  • continue its efforts to simplify the Itinerant Elector application form and ensure its applicability to homeless persons is made apparent
  • target homeless persons in its next public awareness campaign.

As the JSCEM submissions and recommendations indicate, making enrolment and voting more accessible is only the first step. Unless people experiencing homelessness believe voting is worthwhile and relevant to their circumstances, it is unlikely they will exercise their right.

Where to from here?
In response to the JSCEM recommendation the AEC is working with Swinburne University on the research project Bringing Democracy Home: Enfranchising Australia's Homeless. The project aims to develop a better understanding of the homeless population and their voting needs and to ultimately make practical recommendations to ensure that people experiencing homelessness are not denied the right to vote.

Who are the homeless?
In general terms homeless people are either:

  • sleeping rough
  • staying in temporary accommodation such as a shelter or refuge
  • living in marginal or insecure accommodation
  • staying temporarily with family or friends.

The transient nature of homelessness makes it difficult to determine the full extent of the problem. As part of the 1996 census the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimated there were approximately 105,000 homeless people in Australia. PILCH has used this figure to estimate there would be approximately 88,000 homeless people eligible to vote –more than the population of a federal electorate.

Each year around 90,000 people are helped through the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP). According to SAAP data:

  • homelessness peaks in the 25–29 age group and is lowest among those over 55
  • 55% of homeless people are female and 45% are male
  • 83% were born in Australia and 14% are Aboriginal.

Some US responses to homelessness
The US National Voter Registration Act 1993 governs voter registration for federal elections.

All 50 states require voters to have at least some form of mailing address. While 48 states allow individuals to register to vote if they are living in a shelter or on the street, only 17 have written policies, 24 have verbal policies and just 10 have laws which give people experiencing homelessness the right to vote.

People experiencing homelessness can meet address requirements when:

  • they intend to stay in the locale
  • there is a place or residence address where they can receive messages or they have an effective mailing address.

The residence address determines the district in which an applicant votes and is simply the primary place where they spend time –a shelter, train station, doorway, etc. Homeless people with a non-traditional address can draw a map to indicate where they live.

What is an itinerant voter?
Section 96 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 enables people without a permanent address to enrol as an itinerant elector.

Itinerant electors:

  • do not have a "real place of living" within a subdivision
  • are enrolled as an elector for the subdivision in which they last had an entitlement to be enrolled; or if that does not apply, the subdivision in which their next of kin is enrolled; or if neither of these apply, the subdivision in which they were born; or if none of these apply, in the subdivision with which they have the closest connection
  • are noted as itinerant on the roll and are not fined if they do not vote at an election. They are, however, removed from the roll
  • cease to be itinerant if they reside in a subdivision for one month or more.