Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) - Outreach Sessions and information

Victorian State election is on Saturday 24 November 2018.

VEC are asking services to start booking in some electoral outreach, where they can come and share some space within services to chat with people, liaising with duty workers to engage with people and answer questions about enrolling with no fixed address, dealing with fines, how to complete ballot papers so votes count.  They have 60 Democracy Ambassadors across Victoria, who have been employed to assist with getting information out.  The Democracy Ambassadors are people with lived experience of homelessness, people from cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with a disability, people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

Please see below information with links to booking a session, posters and forms

The VEC can visit community service agencies to:

• speak with staff and network meetings about services and how to assist clients to enrol to vote
• run electoral enrolment outreach sessions and ensure that clients, if appropriate, are enrolled under the ‘no fixed address’ category -
• provide voting services during election time so that clients can vote in an environment in which they feel comfortable.

Be Heard! Session booking form

Democracy Ambassadors are reaching out to communities experiencing barriers to participation to educate them about the election. Democracy Ambassadors can deliver information sessions to your services and help clients to learn:

• who can vote
• how to enrol to vote
• how to vote correctly
• where to get help.
• They can also help with and VEC fines people have incurred

Ambassadors just need 10-15 minutes with a client / place to sit and put a laptop/ staff help to coordinate appointments and safety.

Ambassador Video - https://youtu.be/ZiN_YqWuK90

 

People experiencing homelessness can enrol:

• under the No fixed address category. If they enrol under this category and don’t vote at an election they won’t be fined and their name will remain on the electoral roll.
• as a Silent elector They can also apply to be a silent elector if their safety, or the safety of their family, is at risk. This means their address will not be shown on the publicly available electoral roll.

Other resources

Homeless not voteless: information for community agencies information sheet and watch the accompanying video.

education@vec.vic.gov.au or 131 832

Be-Heard-Homeless-not-Voteless-Homelessness-Week-Flyer-July-2018.pdf (636kB)