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So the 2022 Australian federal election will be held on Saturday 21 May. That’s three years to the weekend since the last election.
The wild theories that the Prime Minister would delay the House election until later in the year proved to be, as expected, completely wrong.
The relevant dates for the election are:
Dissolution and Issue of Writs – tomorrow, Monday 11 April
Close of Rolls – Monday 18 April. This is Easter Monday so the Easter break will complicate people trying to enrol or update their details. You can find the AEC’s new enrolment page here , and update enrolment form here .
Close of Nominations – Thursday 21 April. Ballot draw and release of nominations will be on Friday 22 April. Postal votes will not be sent to voters until after the close of nominations, which means after the Anzac Day weekend.
Postal Vote Applications – Can be applied for now through the AEC website. You must apply for a postal vote by Wednesday 18 May, but you are better applying well before the close of application date if you hope to receive your postal vote pack before polling day.
Pre-poll-Voting begins – Monday 9 May. Note that the Electoral Act has been changed since 2019 to shorten pre-poll voting to two weeks instead of three.
Polling Day – Saturday 21 May.
The election period is six weeks instead of the usual five. This means there are four weeks between close of nominations and polling day. With pre-poll voting now limited to two weeks, people cannot vote in person until four weeks into the election campaign.
However, it is likely that political parties will flood the electorate with postal vote applications in the two weeks before pre-poll starts encourage people to vote by post. Read my notes on postal voting inside this port.
Inside the post I also include links to my background material on the 2022 Federal election at the ABC election website.