Same-sex marriage: Millions of Australians have already cast votes

THE first of the votes are in, with the ABS revealing more than half of Australians have already had their say on same-sex marriage.

MORE than half of eligible Australians have already had their say in the same-sex marriage postal vote, according to official Australian Bureau of Statistics records.

As of Friday, 29 September, the ABS estimates it has received 9.2 million (57.5 per cent) survey forms.

Releasing the first of weekly participation updates today, the ABS said the estimate is indicative only, because it’s based on the bulk containers of returned forms and not a count of individual or processed forms.

It does not include forms that have been posted but not yet delivered by Australia Post to the ABS.

ABS Deputy Statistician and Taskforce Lead, Jonathan Palmer, said weekly updates will be provided until the survey closes on 7 November, 2017.

Final participation figures will be available when all processing is completed and survey results are released on 15 November, 2017.

The tally will be released each Tuesday, but won’t include results of how the vote is split between Yes and No camps.

More than 16 million postal survey packages were sent out when the survey began.

The postal vote closes on November 7, with the ABS to release the result on November 15.

Today’s ABS figures are most likely an understatement of participation numbers because of the lag between voters posting their survey and their votes being counted in official results.

An estimated 9.2 million Australians have cast their votes, according to the ABS. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“These updates may encourage participation by those who have not yet responded and will inform reasonable public expectations about the likely final level of response,” deputy Australian statistician Jonathan Palmer said.

The weekly count is based on Australia Post’s assessment of the number of containers of sorted envelopes rather than counts of individual forms, he said.

Voting in the postal survey is voluntary. Forms received after November 7 will be declared invalid, so the ABS is urging people to have posted their forms by October 27.

The response rate figures come a day after a Sky News Reachtel poll revealed on Monday that the Yes vote is on track to win the postal survey.

The poll of almost 5000 people found that 64 per cent of those surveyed had returned their ballot paper, and had voted yes.

It also found 15.5 per cent of respondents had voted No. Six per cent more still planned to vote Yes, and 70 per cent of those polled had already completed and posted their votes.

Less than six per cent polled said they would not vote at all. And less than three per cent had not received their ballot.

Meanwhile, Australian Electoral Commission figures revealed almost 100,000 Australians added their names to the electoral roll ahead of the survey.

And it’s thought women and young people will drive the same-sex marriage vote result, judging by the breakdown of those new additions.

There were 98,193 sign-ups between the announcement of the survey on August 8 and the registration deadline of August 24.

Of these, 66 per cent, or 65,274, were aged between 18 and 24. While young Australians are more likely than older people to not already be enrolled to vote, the fact this effect is seen up to the age of 24 suggests many were inspired by the issue of marriage equality — particularly as taking part is not compulsory. Just 5006 over-50s enrolled to vote.

Female enrolments also far outnumbered male, with 57,152 women registering to just 40,907 men. A further 134 were of indeterminate sex.

* If you haven’t received your form, or your form is lost or damaged, contact the ABS via its website, call the Information Line on 1800 572 113 (open 8am to 8pm local time seven days a week) or visit a capital city or regional form pick-up location. Requests for new survey forms will close 6pm (local time) on October 20.

The Sky News Reachtel poll of almost 5000 people found that 64 per cent of those surveyed had returned their ballot paper, and had voted yes. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty

Originally published as Same-sex marriage: Millions of Australians have already cast votes