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Accessible voting in the 2025 Federal election.

Learn about how you can vote in the upcoming Federal election.
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On this page:

The problem.

People with low vision or blindness still face barriers when voting. While options like telephone voting and braille materials exist, many voters don’t know about them – and polling place staff often aren’t trained to provide proper support.

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Know your options.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) provides a range of supports including:

  • Braille or large print voting papers. These can be requested by phoning the AEC Contact Centre on 13 23 26.
  • Support from a polling staff member to vote at a polling place.
  • Voting by telephone. More detail about telephone voting is described below.
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2025 federal election telephone voting.

Voters who have low vision or blindness can cast their vote in the 2025 election using the Australian Electoral Commission’s (AEC’s) dedicated telephone voting service. The registration process for telephone voting will be open from Tuesday 22 April 2025. The service operates from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm Australian Eastern Time (AET) Monday to Friday for the 10 business days immediately before polling day (excluding national public holidays), and 8 am to 6 pm AET on polling day.

The number to call is 1800 913 993 domestically and +61 2 6271 4611 if overseas.

Step one: registration.

When you call, an AEC operator will ask questions to confirm that you are enrolled to vote and are eligible to vote by telephone. Once they have confirmed you are eligible to vote, they will ask you to choose a personal identification number (a PIN). They will then send you a registration number. You will need to provide both of these numbers when you call back to vote.

Step two: casting a vote.


Once you have registered for telephone voting, you can call back and cast your vote. You will need to provide your registration number and PIN before you vote. If you forget either number, you can re-register for a telephone vote as long as you haven’t voted.

When you call, to protect your privacy, you will be asked for your registration and PIN rather than your personal details to mark you off the electoral roll. This means your vote remains secret because the AEC voting assistant will not know your name or address.

An AEC voting assistant will record your vote. A second person (the ‘witness’) will introduce themselves and explain their purpose, which is to listen to the vote taking call to ensure your vote is recorded correctly onto the ballot paper. Once your vote has been recorded, you can choose whether the operator or the witness reads your vote back to you. Once your vote is complete, your vote will be placed into a secure ballot box.

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Have your say.

MPs and candidates.

  • Share accessible voting info with your constituents.
  • Encourage staff and volunteers to do the training.
  • Show public support for accessible voting.

 

Community and business.

  • Share this campaign on social media.
  • Encourage your networks to complete the training.
  • Help spread the word in your workplace or local area.
  • Use the community resources found below.

 

Complete our ‘Assisting people with blindness or low vision’ course. Staff and volunteers working in polling booths can use the code ‘Election’ to access the course free of charge!

Help us spread awareness.

Assisting People with blindness or low vision.

Want to take further action?

We will keep you informed about our current campaigns and ways you can get involved to help us with our mission to make the community more inclusive and accessible for everyone with low vision or blindness. 

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