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The majority (71%) of Australian Electors believe voting should be compulsory at Federal and State Elections, while 28% think voting should be voluntary and 1% are undecided.

Most Electors (87%) also say they would probably vote at the next Federal Election even if voting were not compulsory, whilst 11% say they would not vote and 2% are undecided, a special telephone Morgan Poll finds.

Of electors who said they wouldn’t vote or couldn’t say if they would vote if voting were not compulsory (13%), on a ‘two-party’ preferred basis, 48% said they would vote for the L-NP if an Election were held today and 52% said they would vote for the ALP.

Australians’ attitudes to compulsory voting have changed little in the last 40 years. In 1969, when the Morgan Poll last asked Australians electors (then aged over 21) if they thought voting should be compulsory or not, 69% said compulsory, 29% said voluntary with 2% undecided.

This special telephone Morgan Poll was conducted on the evenings of September 21/22, 2005, with an Australia-wide sample of 650 respondents aged 14 and over - of whom 564 were electors .   

For further information:

Gary Morgan	Office +61 3 9224 5213	Mobile  +61 411 129 094	Home +61 3 9419 3242
Michele Levine	Office +61 3 9224 5215	Mobile  +61 411 129 093	Home +61 3 9817 3066

Should voting at Federal and State Elections be Compulsory or Voluntary?

Respondents were asked: “In your opinion, should voting at Federal and State Elections be compulsory or voluntary?”

	Australian Electors		Electors Analysed by Federal Voting Intention
	Aged 21+	Aged 18+
	Oct	Sep 21/22			Total	Aust	The	One	Family	Ind /	No
	1969	2005	L-NP	ALP	Others	Dem.#	Greens	Nation#	First#	Other#	Answer
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Compulsory	69	71	73	74	68	52	79	42	72	61	-
Voluntary	29	28	27	25	31	43	21	58	28	39	100
Can’t say	2	1	-	1	1	5	-	-	-	-	-
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100

	Australian Electors		Analysed by Two Party Preferred Vote
	Aged 21+	Aged 18+
	Oct 1969	Sep 21/22 2005	L-NP	ALP
	%	%	%	%
Compulsory	69	71	71	75
Voluntary	29	28	28	25
Can’t say	2	1	1	-
Total	100	100	100	100

	Australian Electors		Electors Analysed by Sex and Age
	Aged 21+	Aged 18+
	Oct 1969	Sep 21/22 2005	Men	Women	18-24	25-34	35-49	50+	14-17
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Compulsory	69	71	71	72	57	62	72	80	54
Voluntary	29	28	28	27	43	38	26	20	46
Can’t say	2	1	1	1	-	-	2	-	-
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100

	Australian Electors		Analysed by Region and State
	Aged 21+	Aged 18+
	Oct 1969	Sep 21/22 2005	Metro	Country	NSW	Vic	Qld	SA / NT	WA	Tas
Compulsory	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Voluntary	69	71	73	69	69	77	67	73	72	70
Can’t say	29	28	26	31	30	22	33	25	27	30
Total	2	1	1	-	1	1	-	2	1	-
	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100

If Voting Were Not Compulsory — Would You Vote?

Respondents were then asked: “If voting were not compulsory in Australia , would you yourself vote at the next Federal Election or not?”

	Australian Electors 18+	Analysed by Federal Voting Intention
	Sep 21/22			Total	Aust	The	One	Family	Ind /	No
	2005	L-NP	ALP	Others	Dem.#	Greens	Nation#	First#	Other#	Answer
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Yes / Probably would vote	87	91	89	82	81	92	58	72	72	-
No, would not vote	11	9	10	14	14	8	25	28	17	60
Can’t say	2	1	1	4	5	-	17	-	11	40
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100

	Australian Electors 18+	Analysed by Two Party Preferred Vote
	Sep 21/22 2005	L-NP	ALP
	%	%	%
Yes / Probably would vote	87	90	88
No, would not vote	11	9	11
Can’t say	2	1	1
Total	100	100	100

	Australian Electors 18+	Analysed by Sex and Age
	Sep 21/22 2005	Men	Women	18-24	25-34	35-49	50+		14-17
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%		%
Yes / Probably would vote	87	88	86	84	78	88	92		79
No, would not vote	11	10	12	14	17	10	7		14
Can’t say	2	2	2	2	5	2	1		7
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100		100

	Australian Electors 14+	Analysed by Region and State
	Sep 21/22 2005	Metro	Country	NSW	Vic	Qld	SA / NT	WA	Tas
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Yes / Probably would vote	87	88	86	88	88	84	88	87	87
No, would not vote	11	10	12	10	10	14	9	12	9
Can’t say	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	1	4
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100

The above tables show Australians’ attitudes towards whether voting should be compulsory or not, analysed by Federal Voting Intention, Sex, Age, Region and State.

The complete analysis of results by demographics and regions is available on subscription.

The Morgan Poll is conducted by the ONLY Australian member of the Gallup International Association.

© 2007 Roy Morgan Research. All Rights Reserved
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