An Autistic’s guide to Australia’s federal elections
Autistics and our allies have a powerful voice and the May 3rd
2025 federal election is a good time to use it. We need a government committed
to fairness and equality, saving the environment and reducing the cost of
living.
Who has to vote?
If you are over 18, check your enrolment details on the
Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) website.1 Enrolment closed on
April 7th, so If your name is not there you won’t be able to vote at
this election. Make sure you enrol to vote2 soon so you can get to
vote next time around.
If you have difficulty with transport or access to polling
booths, or with the sensory or social aspects of attending a polling booth, you
have the right to apply for a postal vote, as disability is an acceptable
reason for not voting in person. You can also apply for a postal vote if you
are travelling or working on election day. Apply for a postal vote as soon as
possible to make sure you don’t miss out.
In some electorates, local Members of Parliament (or other
election candidates) send out postal vote application forms. You can send the
completed form back in a Reply Paid envelope, to obtain a postal vote. This is
convenient, however if you have privacy concerns about MPs, or other election
candidates, obtaining your contact details then do not use this form. Instead,
apply for a postal vote directly to the Australian Electoral Commission3.
The AEC also offers mobile voting (also referred to as
mobile polling)4 to certain locations to provide an in-person voting
service to people who experience barriers to electoral participation. But this
only covers a few locations, so if you need this service, check if it is
convenient for you.
AEC mobile voting teams will be visiting some mental health
services, such as mental health hospitals and mental health inpatient units. Voting
may be provided in a communal area or, where required, as a bedside service. Mobile
voting teams will also visit some residential locations for people with
disability, some homelessness services, aged care facilities, hospitals and
prisons.
By law, every Australian citizen over the age of 18 must
enrol to vote with the Australian Electoral Commission. Voting is compulsory.
The exception is people who are serving prison terms of more than three years and
those who have relinquished their right to vote, or had their voting rights
taken away from them, under “unsound mind” provisions. While this might suit
some Autistics who don’t like elections, Autistics typically have a strong
social conscience and have many unmet needs. We should all be empowered to make
political choices that would serve our best interests.
If a carer/parent has removed you from the electoral roll
under “unsound mind” provisions, because you have an intellectual disability or
mental health issue, you could consider regaining your voting rights. You could
do this by obtaining medical evidence that positively demonstrates you can
understand the electoral system, and the significance of voting, and asking for
further advice from the Australian Electoral Commission, a disability advocacy
organisation, or Australian Lawyers for Human Rights5.
In a recent case, a woman with Downs Syndrome won back her
right to vote, a process which took three months6.
Who should I vote for?
Although political campaigns can, at times, seem overbearing
and phoney, it is important to distinguish between the intentions or actions of
different candidates. For example, in some electorates, some candidates do not
support trans people and some candidates might not support vaccines because of
the debunked vaccine-Autism link. Whichever issues matter to you, please do
your research about which candidates, in your area, best represent your
concerns, as well as which party you think would form the best government and
who you think would be the best prime minister. Tuning out of the electoral
process because of political argumentation only helps dishonest candidates with
poor policies win the vote.
If the political argumentation seems too heavy, try writing
your top 3 or 4 concerns as headings on separate pages and, under each heading,
write down what each political party or local independent has to say on this
issue. Then look for any patterns – is there one party or candidate who
consistently gets it right? Or is there someone who wins your support based on
trust alone? This should help you decide who gets your number 1 vote. Any
candidate you can’t stand, who offends your values, should be numbered last on
your ballot paper.
Numbering your ballot paper can be made easier by following
your preferred party or candidate’s recommendations (their How to Vote card).
Alternately, a campaign you support, for example a human rights or environmental
group, might do a survey and then recommend a voting choice to supporters.
There is nothing stopping you or your organisation surveying candidates
yourselves, asking them where they stand on important issues, although many
larger organisations must avoid political involvement because they need to
remain neutral to fulfill their community roles.
Over the next few weeks, political parties and independent
candidates will tell you what they stand for through advertisements including
social media, pamphlet distribution and sometimes visits or phone calls. Please
take your time deciding what matters to you and which candidates in your local
area are responsive to your needs. You will need to consider all local
candidates’ parties and policies so you know who to give your preferences to.
If you vote 1 for a candidate and they do not get many
votes, your vote will then be passed on to whoever you voted for as number 2,
and if they miss out, your vote then goes to your number 3 candidate, and so
forth. Your vote won’t be wasted. If one candidate in your area scores more
than 50% of first preference votes then this candidate would automatically be declared
the outright winner.7
The party you vote for does not decide who to give your
preferences to, you do. It’s up to you whether you follow your favourite
candidate’s suggested How to Vote card or determine your numerical ranking of
candidates yourself. How to Vote cards are often advertised in the media
shortly before elections and routinely given to voters outside the polling
booths on election day, and following a card can make voting more
straightforward.
Surviving the election campaign
There are some heightened emotions, loud voices, uninvited
approaches and visual clutter to survive up until the federal election. This
might not be your favourite season, but remember that democracy cannot survive
without it. Autistics do not fare well under dictatorships. Although some of us
might not like certain sensory or social aspects of election season, the
overwhelming majority of voters depend on getting their information this way.
Letterboxing
Junk mail is the least bothersome way of finding out local
candidates’ backgrounds and what they stand for. You might not like the wasted
paper, but many people won’t find out about who wants to save the trees unless
they get these pamphlets. A “No Junk Mail” sign on your letterbox does not stop
you getting community information such as political pamphlets. If you would
like to stop these, you could try attaching a “No political fliers” sign to
your letterbox, although this sign would have no legal force.
On the other hand, you could keep the political junk mail to
compare candidates’ policies. If you receive no pamphlets from a particular
candidate, it is usually a sign that they have no local supporters and do not
engage with local voters. By contrast, if a small, unknown political group
suddenly launches a massive campaign with full page newspaper ads, massive
billboards, and saturates the suburb with coloured pamphlets, while wearing professional
looking T-shirts, you could try to find out if a lobby or industry group is
funding them, and then decide whether or not you agree with the influence that
this lobby or industry has with this candidate. This influence should be
apparent from the candidate’s list of policies. The Australian Electoral
Commission’s website contains information on financial disclosure of political
donors that could shed light on who each candidate is accountable to8.
Ideally, candidates should be accountable us, the voters, first and foremost,
and they should be supported primarily by lobby or industry groups that align
with our values.
Advertising blitzes
If political news and advertising is overwhelming, try to
avoid social media, radio and TV as the election approaches. Many political ads
are psychologist inspired sound-bites, designed to grab your attention and demonise
opponents, and contain very little useful information. Instead, rely on candidates’
internet sites and pamphlets, leaders’ debates and in-depth newspaper reports,
to gain more insight into what matters at the elections and where candidates
stand.
A year-round interest in current events is the best
way to shape your ideas and understanding of political personalities and
processes. You need to see how they are all year round, and not just the
performance they put on when they are vying for your vote.
Door knockers and phone calls
As most voters are neurotypicals, they can often make up
their minds who to vote for based on these chatty approaches. This is a vital
part of political campaigning for anyone hoping to get into Parliament, so you
may get these calls and door knockers. Many Autistics want to avoid this kind
of contact. You could shake your head and say sorry, not answer the door to
strangers, let your phone calls go to message or even put a sign on your door that
says “No door knockers” or “No political campaigners”. Campaigners understand
that some people do not want to engage with them and that’s OK.
Personal approaches from campaigners
Some campaigners will go to festivals, railway stations or
shopping centres to give out their pamphlets. They will generally avoid you if
you avoid them. You could take a brochure from them and give a thank you or
nod, or look away and shake your head – it’s your choice. If you are so
inclined, you can stop and ask them questions and tell them your concerns; your
ideas are good feedback for those who seek to represent you in parliament.
If you’d like to give a candidate your ideas, but do not
want to talk to campaigners, you can email the candidate and ask for a
response. During election campaigns, candidates are inundated with letters and
are unlikely to answer each one personally, but keep trying as democracy is
meant to give you a say.
Personal approaches at polling booths
If you vote in person, you cannot avoid the crowd of
campaigners outside the polling booth, handing out How to Vote cards and
calling out their party’s name. You might want to deal with them by using
social scripting. Even the most extroverted neurotypicals giving out How to
Vote cards start to sound like they are social scripting themselves, by the end
of their 3-hour volunteering stint outside a polling booth, saying the same
thing over and over to the crowds, so your social scripting will sound perfectly
fine to them too. You could take each how to vote card and give a nod, or declare,
“I know who I’m voting for”, keep your gaze fixed straight ahead and keep your
hands in your pockets and walk straight past the campaigners.
If you are concerned about the obvious wasted paper on
election day, you can return each How to Vote card to the respective campaigner
on your way out and say, “Save the trees and recycle.” They will be grateful as
their parties spend a lot of money on elections.
On very rare occasions, some campaigners at polling booths
are too pushy or argumentative. Please report any such person to the Electoral
Officer inside, or at least point out the pushy person to the more reasonable
campaigners, so they can make a complaint. Argumentative campaigners ruin the
election for everyone. They are a workplace health and safety risk at the
polling booth. They upset voters and other campaigners and unduly influence
voters, either by pressuring them to vote a certain way, or by turning them off
the electoral process.
The best alternative for people who hate crowds is the
postal vote. If you prefer to vote in person but want to avoid crowds, you can
do a pre-poll in the fortnight leading up to election day, or vote early in the
morning on election day. Not all polling places are wheelchair accessible, so
check ahead if needed. There will be many polling booths operating on May 3rd,
but only a couple of booths are open during pre-polling in each suburb.9
If you have forgotten to apply for a postal vote, and must vote in person, a
support person can go into the booth ahead of you, explain your disability to
the Electoral Officer, and ask if you can avoid waiting in the queue to vote.
How to cast a vote10
When you vote, you will be given two ballot papers – a small
green one and large white one. These will have the names of your local
representatives (not party leaders) and which party they represent.
The small green paper relates to a contest between
individuals who wish to become your local Member of Parliament (MP) in the
Lower House. The large white paper is for the Upper House; each state elects a
group of Senators to represent the whole state.
SMALL GREEN BALLOT PAPER
·
Number every square on the small
green ballot paper (House of Reps, Lower House)
LARGE WHITE BALLOT PAPER
There are two ways to vote on large white ballot paper:
·
Vote above the line ONLY by numbering at
least 6 to vote by party blocks (the easiest way to vote)
OR
·
Vote below the line ONLY by numbering at
least 12 to vote for individuals within different parties, or to re-order
candidates within their own party block.
Fold these papers and put them in the separate “green” and
“white” boxes as marked.
Getting support to cast a vote
It can be easier for Autistics to apply to the Australian
Electoral Commission to receive a postal vote, and you are entitled to a postal
vote on disability grounds. If you need support to cast your vote, you can
bring a support person with you to the polling booth, ask an Electoral Officer
at the booth for help11, or have a support person help you with your
postal vote at home. Make sure your support person explains things thoroughly
and respects your viewpoint and voting intention. Make sure you both understand
the envelope and signature arrangements and send the voting papers back on time
to be counted. Postal votes must be posted on or before election day and must
be received within 13 days after the election to be counted12.
Voting is compulsory for all Australian Citizens over the age of 18, and you
can be fined for not voting13.
Most of all, get informed before you cast your vote. Look at
the issues that matter to you and decide which party deserves your vote.
References
1. 1 Check your enrolment details https://check.aec.gov.au/
2. 2 Enrol to vote https://www.aec.gov.au/enrol/
3. 3 Apply for a postal vote https://www.aec.gov.au/election/pva.htm
4. 4 Mobile polling chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.aec.gov.au/election/fe25/files/Factsheet%20-%20what%20is%20mobile%20polling.pdf
5. 5 Australian Lawyers for Human Rights https://alhr.org.au/contact-us/
6. 6 Denying people the right to vote due to “unsound
mind” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-14/disability-voting-laws/101059872
7. 7 Preferential voting system https://www.aec.gov.au/learn/preferential-voting.htm
8. 8 Political donors https://transparency.aec.gov.au/
9. 9 Where to vote https://www.aec.gov.au/election/voting.htm#start
10. 10 How to cast your vote https://www.aec.gov.au/voting/how_to_vote/
11. 11 Voters with disabilities https://www.aec.gov.au/assistance/
12. 12 Postal voting chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.aec.gov.au/voting/ways_to_vote/files/postal-voting-factsheet.pdf
13. 13 Penalties and appeals for not voting https://www.aec.gov.au/faqs/post-election.htm
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