Yes vote group aims to make 500k calls

A rainbow coalition of pro same-sex marriage advocacy groups, headed by GetUp!, has been launched.

The number of enrolments had increased by 90,000 ahead of last night’s August 24 deadline for participation in the postal ballot. Picture: Getty

A rainbow coalition made up of pro same-sex marriage advocacy groups has launched an initiative aiming to make 500,000 calls in the campaign for a Yes vote in the same-sex marriage postal survey.

Yes! To Equality launched this afternoon and is comprised of 22 different LGBT rights groups including Get! Up, Australian Marriage Equality and the Human Rights Law Centre, is encouraging Australians to get out and convince their family and friends to vote yes.The website will act as an organising hub for advocacy and events.

A coalition of orgs and groups just launched https://t.co/jPflSQdVPg – the organising hub that will make 500k calls for marriage equality.

— Sally Rugg 🏳️‍🌈 (@sallyrugg) August 25, 2017

Meanwhile, the Australian Electoral Commission has confirmed it received nearly one million updates to the electoral roll since the government’s postal survey on same sex marriage was first flagged on August 8.

The AEC issued a statement today confirming that more than 16 million people were enrolled and eligible to vote in the postal ballot on same sex marriage — the largest number of people on the roll since federation.

It also confirmed the number of enrolments had increased by 90,000 ahead of last night’s August 24 deadline for participation in the postal ballot.

So far, the AEC has processed a total of 765,000 enrolment transactions — including address updates — since postal ballot was announced.

As of the end Thursday, there were still over 165,000 transactions still to be processed with the AEC to continue working over the weekend.

16m+ Australians will be eligible to participate in the marriage survey - the largest roll since federation https://t.co/WB5a6Q17Os #auspol pic.twitter.com/9IWW98l66i

— AEC (@AusElectoralCom) August 25, 2017

Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers said the AEC had maintained the high enrolment rate at the previous federal election going into the announcement of the postal ballot.

“An estimated 95 per cent of eligible Australians were enrolled at the 2016 federal election, increasing marginally to 95.3 per cent at 31 July,” he said. “We expect this to reach a record high once processing has been completed.”

“The maintenance of the roll is a significant achievement given the trend throughout recent electoral cycles for enrolment rates to dip mid-cycle.”

When the processing of the remaining enrolment transactions has been finalised, the AEC will send the electoral roll data to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) which will conduct the postal survey.