Voice referendum: 2.6 million didn’t vote

Preliminary turnout figures reveal the staggering amount of Australians who chose not to vote in the Voice referendum. See why.

More than two and a half million Australians on the electoral roll, or about one in seven voters, opted not to cast a ballot in Saturday’s Voice referendum, it can be revealed.

While an official turnout figure will not be available for some weeks because postal votes are still coming in, an Australian Electoral Commission spokesperson said they expected the final figure to be in the mid-80 per cent range.

A turnout rate of 85 per cent would mean more than 2.6 million of the country’s 17.5 million voters did not cast a ballot, and now could face fines of $20 if they do not have a good excuse for not doing so.

If fines are levied on all 2.6 million non-voters it would yield $52 million, against the total referendum cost of $400 million.

Despite the compulsory nature of Australia’s voting system and the threat of fines, turnout rates have been steadily declining in federal elections.

When Aussies voted in the 1999 republic referendum, 95.1 per cent of people on the electoral roll cast a vote, but by the 2022 federal election, the percentage had dropped to 89.82 per cent.

Professor Ian McAllister, co-director of the long-running Australian Election Study at ANU, said declining turnout was a worldwide trend that was happening in countries with voluntary voting systems (such as the US and UK) and those with compulsory voting (such as Australia, Belgium and Brazil).

A voter cast his vote at a polling centre in Muswellbrook. Picture: Getty Images

Australian National University researcher Professor Ian McAllister. Picture: Supplied

“It’s predominantly people aged under 40 who are much less likely to vote, and almost certainly that’s what's been happening here,” Prof McAllister said.

“I’m a bit surprised at the turnout rate for the referendum; if it is 85 per cent, that’s actually quite low.”

Lack of connection to the Voice issue may have been why many Australians did not bother to vote, he said.

“If people see an election as something important to their lives, their future, their economic prosperity, they’re much more likely to vote. I wonder, while there were certainly a lot of people who were emotionally engaged in this campaign, whether a lot of people thought it was not all that important to them, given cost of living and everything else,” Prof McAllister said.

The fine for not voting in federal elections has been $20 since 1984, but Prof McAllister said research conducted for the Australian Election Study found increasing the penalty would not make much difference to the turnout rate.

But support for compulsory voting remained strong in Australia, Prof McAllister said, with about three out of four voters in favour of retaining it.

Originally published as Voice referendum: 2.6 million didn’t vote