Enrolling to vote the 'digital' way

blog Enrolling to vote or changing your enrolment address can be a pain in the behind if you don't want to leave your house, which is why ZDNet Australia has decided to show how it can be done in an almost — yet not totally — "digital" way.

With the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) saying 1.4 million people are "missing" from the electoral role — the majority being people aged between 18 and 19 — my colleague Josh and I thought we'd create a tutorial showing how to enrol, which doesn't require you to leave your house. Bonus!

All in all it took us around 10 minutes. Pretty good I thought.

We originally thought you'd have to post your completed form to the AEC, but that isn't the case.

The AEC has adopted email, and, provided you can scan a copy of your completed form, downloadable via PDF, you can send a copy of it to your local AEC branch.

What you'll need

• Computer
• Internet connection
• PDF software
• Pen
• Scanner
• Printer
• Patience

Step 1

First, you'll want to download your state's PDF enrolment form. It can be downloaded here.

Download your state's PDF enrolment form.
(Credit: Josh Taylor/ZDNet Australia)

Step 2

Once downloaded, complete the form and print the required pages. In my case, I only needed to print one as I have a driver's licence.

Only print the pages you need. I only needed one and accidentally printed four.
(Credit: Josh Taylor/ZDNet Australia)

Step 3

Once printed, you'll now need to sign and date stamp the form.

Sign and put a date on your enrolment form.
(Credit: Josh Taylor/ZDNet Australia)

Step 4

Now that you've signed your form and placed the date that you signed onto it, you'll need to scan a copy of it.

Scan your enrolment form
(Credit: Josh Taylor/ZDNet Australia)

Step 5

We're almost there! Now all you need to do is send your scanned form via email to your local AEC office. To do so, you'll need to put your postcode into a tool at the bottom of the page linked here. It will give you the email address you need to email your form to.

Find your local AEC office email address.
(Credit: Josh Taylor/ZDNet Australia)

Step 6

Send your form via email to the address provided in step 5. You're done!.

Email your scanned enrolment form.
(Credit: Josh Taylor/ZDNet Australia)

Update at 2:13pm, 15 July 2010: Removed an inaccuracy suggesting the AEC only accepted black-and-white forms.