Glossary

Term Definition
absent vote A vote cast by electors who are out of their division but still within their State or Territory.
absolute majority More than half the formal votes (50%+1 vote) in a House of Representatives election. A candidate must receive an absolute majority to be elected as a Member of Parliament in a division.
Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) The independent statutory authority established in 1984 to maintain and update the electoral roll and conduct federal elections and referendums.
Australian Electoral Officer (AEO) AEC’s chief manager in each State and the Northern Territory. The returning officer for the Senate in each State and Territory.
ballot paper A paper which shows the names of the candidates who are standing for election. An elector votes by showing his or her preferences on a ballot paper.
by-election An election held to fill vacancies resulting from death, resignation, absence without leave, expulsion, disqualification or ineligibility of a Member.
candidate A person who stands for election to Parliament. Candidates can be nominated by political parties or stand as an independent.
certified list of voters The official electoral roll used on election day to mark off electors’ names. The list contains the name and address of all electors for that division. After an election the Certified Lists are electronically scanned to identify apparent non-voters and possible multiple voters.
Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (the Act) The legislation governing the Commonwealth electoral process.
Constitution The set of basic rules by which a country or State is governed. In Australia’s case, the Constitution is a document written in the 1890s and approved in 1901 which sets out the structure of Australian federal politics. The Constitution can only be amended through a Constitutional referendum.
Court of Disputed Returns A candidate, elector or the AEC may dispute the validity of an election by a petition to the High Court sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns.
declaration vote

Votes that are sealed in an envelope signed by the voter.

These votes are cast when:

  • the voter’s name cannot be found on the certified list
  • the voter’s name is marked off the certified list as already having voted
  • the voter is registered as a silent elector (i.e. his/her address does not appear on the roll)
  • the voter casts an absent, pre-poll or postal vote.
division Voting districts or electorates for the House of Representatives.
Divisional Returning Officer (DRO) The full time AEC officer responsible for maintaining the roll and conducting the election within a division.
Electoral Commissioner The officer who performs the function of the chief executive officer of the AEC.
electoral roll A list of the names of all the people who are entitled to vote in an election.
electoral roll review A regular check of the accuracy of the roll using a variety of methods including data matching, and in some cases, house to house surveys.
formal vote A vote cast in an election or referendum that has been marked according to the rules of that election.
general postal voter (GPV) An elector who is registered to have postal ballot papers sent to him/her automatically. An elector who has difficulty getting to a polling place on election day can register as a GPV.
group voting ticket (GVT) The order in which a Senate group wants its preferences distributed. If a voter chooses to put the number ‘1’ in one of the boxes above the line on a Senate ballot paper, the preferences will be distributed according to the group’s GVT.
House of Representatives One of the two houses of the Federal Parliament of Australia, whose Members are elected on a population basis.
itinerant elector A special enrolment category for electors who live in Australia but have no permanent residential address.
Member of Parliament (MP) A person elected to parliament. Most commonly used for those elected to the House of Representatives.
mobile polling A mobile polling team brings the polling place to the elector. Teams visit electors in hospitals, nursing homes and prisons, and also visit remote locations by air, sea or road.
nomination Candidates must be nominated before they may be elected to the Senate or the House of Representatives.
ordinary vote A vote cast at a polling place in the elector’s home division on election day.
overseas elector An elector who is going overseas for six years or less can apply to be an overseas elector.
political party A group of people with similar ideas or aims, some of whose members nominate as candidates at elections in the hope that they will be elected to Parliament.
polling place Location at which electors can cast their votes on election day.
postal vote Ballot papers sent to electors who cannot attend a polling place in their State or Territory on election day.
preferential voting A system of voting in which the voter completes the ballot paper by putting the number ‘1’ in the box beside the candidate of their first choice, the number ‘2’ beside their second choice and so on until all candidates are numbered.
pre-poll vote Votes cast at a divisional office or pre-poll voting centre in the lead up to election day. They are cast by electors who will not be able to get to a polling place in their State or Territory on election day.
provisional vote A vote cast in a circumstance where an elector’s name cannot be found on the roll or has already been marked off the roll and the elector claims not to have voted.
quota The number of votes needed by a candidate or party to be elected to the Senate.
redistribution The redrawing of electoral boundaries for a division to ensure that there are, as near as possible, equal numbers of electors in each division for a State or Territory.
referendum A public vote on a proposed law to alter the Constitution.
scrutineer A person appointed by a candidate to observe the voting and counting of the votes.
scrutiny The process of counting votes which commences following the close of polling. The formality of votes is determined and the votes are sorted and counted to determine the outcome of the election.
Senate One of the two houses of Federal Parliament which has 76 Senators, 12 from each of the six states and two each from the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.
Senator A person elected by the voters of a State or Territory to represent them in the Senate.
silent enrolment Enrolment in which an elector’s address is not shown on the electoral roll.
two-candidate-preferred These figures show where preferences have been distributed to the final two candidates in an election. In most, but not all, cases these will be from the two major sides of politics-the ALP and the Coalition.
two-party-preferred A distribution of preferences between the two major sides of politics (ALP/Coalition). The two-party-preferred count is often, but not always, similar to the two-candidate-preferred count.
writ A document commanding an electoral officer to hold an election. The writ contains dates for the close of rolls, the close of nominations, election day and the return of the writ.