Federal election 2016: late surge in enrolments flows in

A record 15,676,659 Australians have signed up to vote in the ­election.

A record 15,676,659 Australians have signed up to vote in the ­election.

A two-week advertising blitz by the Australian Electoral Commission to encourage people to enrol to vote attracted an extra 132,000 people, since Malcolm Turnbull formally announced the election would be held on July 2.

Overall there will be 963,000 more people on the roll than for the 2013 election, but electoral commissioner Tom Rogers said there were still an estimated 816,000 people who were missing from the roll.

Mr Rogers said this was an ­improvement from the last ­election when an estimated 1.21 million were not enrolled. “The proportion of eligible Australians on the roll has risen from 92.4 per cent at the 2013 election to 95 per cent,” Mr Rogers said.

Figures provided by the electoral commission show a record 3.4 million people aged over 65 will vote in this election, accounting for almost one in five voters.

By comparison just 192,063 people aged 18 will vote and only 228,404 people aged 19 will be ­eligible to cast a ballot, making up a combined 2.7 per cent of voters.

Just over 5 million voters are in NSW, 3.9 million in Victoria and about 3 million in Queensland.

About 1.5 million voters live in Western Australia, 1.1 million in South Australia, 373,584 in Tasmania, 282,126 in the ACT and 133,020 in the Northern Territory.

The electorate of Canberra has the highest number of people ­enrolled, with 143,279, while Lin­g­iari, which makes up most of the Northern Territory has the lowest, with 63,082. Outside the territor­ies, Julia Gillard’s old western Melbourne seat of Lalor has the most voters, with 123,571 people ­enrolled, and Tangney in Western Australia has the fewest, at 94,111.

The deadline for candidates to nominate for the House of Repres­entatives and the Senate is noon next Thursday, June 9.

The draw of names for the ­ballot papers will be at midday next Friday, June 10.