The Voting Process
Ordinary Polling Places
An ordinary vote is a vote cast on by an elector enrolled for any electorate at any polling place within the Australian Capital Territory.
Unlike Commonwealth elections, an elector could cast an ordinary vote in a polling place in an electorate other than the electorate the elector was enrolled for. In other words, an elector could cast an ordinary vote in his or her 'home' electorate, or if they were not in their 'home' electorate, cast an ordinary vote in an 'away' electorate.
Electronic Votes
For this election, the 15 early voting centres issued votes electronically. These votes are included in the total votes for each of these polling places.
Early votes
An early vote is a vote cast by an elector during the period 8 October to 18 October 2024. These polling places are identified by the inclusion of "Early voting centre" next to their name.
Central Scrutiny
To preserve the secrecy of the ballot, under the Electoral Act 1992 any ballot papers counted for an electorate that totalled fewer than 20 at a polling place cannot be sorted to candidates at that polling place. Instead, they are taken unsorted to the central scrutiny centre where they are combined with other ballot papers before they are sorted. In these cases, the statistics record that no votes were counted at those polling places for that electorate.
These combined ballot papers are shown for each electorate under a polling place entitled "Central Scrutiny".
Similarly, at an electronic polling place, if there were fewer than 20 electronic votes cast for an electorate, these were also included in the central scrutiny. If an electronic polling place took more than 20 electronic votes and fewer than 20 paper votes, the electronic votes are included under the polling place and the paper votes are included in the central scrutiny (and vice versa). If an electronic polling place took fewer than 20 paper votes and fewer than 20 electronic votes, these are all included in the central scrutiny, even though they may add to more than 20 for that polling place.
Declaration Votes
A declaration vote is a vote cast at a polling place or early voting centre by an elector whose name:
• is incorrectly marked on the roll in the polling place or early voting centre to indicate that the elector has already voted; or
• cannot be found on the roll but the elector claims to be entitled to vote.
Where it is found that the elector's vote is entitled to be counted, these votes are included in the polling place called "declaration".
Interstate Votes
An elector who is unable to attend a polling place within the ACT may cast a vote from three weeks prior to election day until the day before polling day at the state electoral authority office in interstate capital cities. These votes are included in the "interstate" polling place.
Postal Votes
A postal vote is a vote cast by an elector who is unable to attend a polling place within the ACT on election day. Postal votes can be cast at any time from the 19th day before polling day until polling day itself. As the name suggests, postal votes can be sent through the postal system. These are shown in the "postals" polling place.
Overseas Votes
Overseas - to be confirmed.
Telephone Votes
Telephone - to be confirmed.
More Information
For more information see our electoral system page.
Glossary - click to expand
Glossary - click to collapse
Quota
The proportion or percentage of votes required for a candidate to be elected to the Legislative Assembly. For the ACT’s 5 member electorates the quota is approximately 16.7%
Percentages
Votes for parties, groups and candidates are always expressed as a percentage of the total formal vote in the same column. Formal and informal votes are always expressed as a percentage of the total votes in the same column. Total votes for an electorate are expressed as a percentage of the enrolment for the electorate. Total votes for the ACT are expressed as a percentage of the enrolment for the ACT.
Swings
The swings shown represent the difference in percentage terms between the result for each party and “other” candidates and the corresponding result for the 2020 election:
• For parties that contested the 2020 election, the swing shown is the percentage of the votes received by the party in 2024 less the percentage of the votes received by the party in 2020.
• For parties that did not contest the 2020 election, the swing shown is the percentage of the votes received by the party in 2024.
• The swing figure for “other” candidates compares results for 2024 non-party candidates with the results obtained for 2020 non-party candidates combined with any results cast in 2020 for parties that are not contesting the 2024 election.
The total percentages of formal votes for each party. A formal vote being a valid vote; i.e. a first preference for a candidate belonging to the respective party.
The percentage of votes for each party, less the votes percentage for the respective party during the previous election.
The number of formal votes counted, the percentage, and the total enrolment
The proportion of progressive quota recieved for each of the top 5 parties, for each electorate.
The proportion of progressive quota recieved for each of the top 5 candidates in each electorate.
