Voting in the 2020 ACT Legislative Assembly election is entering the final stages with just under three days of early voting remaining.

ACT Electoral Commissioner, Damian Cantwell AM said that a record 161,953 enrolled ACT residents had already cast their vote at an early voting centre or applied for a postal vote as of COB Tuesday.

“We may see as many as 70 per cent of ACT residents already engaged in the voting process before Saturday,” Mr Cantwell said.

“The spread of voter turnout we’re seeing over the full three-week period is exactly what we’ve planned as part of COVID safety arrangements in place for this election.”

• Early voting centre locations
• Early voting centre statistics (see below)

Postal voting

As of COB yesterday, 21,873 postal vote applications had been received ahead of the application deadline at 5pm on Thursday.

“While you can still apply for a postal vote, depending on your circumstances it may be difficult to deliver ballots papers to you in time to cast your vote,” Mr Cantwell said.

“I would encourage anyone who is able to get to a voting venue to cast their vote to do so.”

• Postal voting information

Voting on Saturday

For those voters who will be casting their vote on Saturday, there will be 82 voting locations available across Canberra.

The fifteen voting centre locations that have been operating throughout the early voting period will continue to be open on Saturday and will continue to provide both electronic and paper-based voting services. All other voting locations on Saturday will be offering paper ballots.

“The COVID safety arrangements that have been in place at early voting centres throughout the entire early voting period will also be implemented at all voting centres on Saturday,” Mr Cantwell said.

• COVID-19 safety measures

The count

Results from all electronic votes cast at early voting centres are anticipated to be displayed within 1-2 hours of the voting centres closing at 6pm. This will include a preliminary distribution of preferences.

The strength of the indication that this initial results data provides, in terms of who the successful candidates might be, is entirely dependent on just how many early/electronic votes are cast and then how close the margins are.

For paper-based votes cast on Saturday, each polling place will complete a first preference count after the polls close at 6pm. This data will be transmitted to the election results display website, which will be updated automatically and regularly throughout the night. This results data should begin to appear within 2-3 hours of polls closing.

The paper ballots from early voting centres and initial counts of postal votes received will not be counted until the days following Saturday.

• Approximately 90% of votes being cast at early voting centres are being cast electronically
• Further information

Video: Counting the votes for ACT Legislative Assembly elections

Reminder - media access to voting venues

Media who would like to gather video footage or take photographs at 2020 ACT legislative Assembly Election voting venues must seek prior permission.

Opportunities for media to attend a voting venue for this purpose may be limited because of COVID-19 safety measures that are necessarily being implemented. These safety measures include venue-capacity limits, with voters being prioritised.

• Media planning to visit a voting venue must contact Elections ACT
• Media attending a venue must adhere to the guidelines

Votes cast each day

% of votes cast at early voting centres - previous ACT elections