About this record
Referendum ballot papers are produced by the Commonwealth Electoral Office and issued to the Divisional Returning Officers across the country, along with a copy of the Writ and the Bill (their instructions and their authorisation for the running of the referendum).
This is a draft of the 1967 referendum ballot paper sent by the Chief Electoral Officer to the Divisional Returning Officers (DROs) of Western Australia. The DROs were responsible for printing the referendum ballot paper for their own state (like this final version).
Educational value
- There are three different types of ballot papers:
- Voting at a polling both in your own electorate on the day of the election or referendum
If you are an eligible voter, you can turn up to a polling place on the day of the election/referendum. A polling attendant will check to make sure that your name is registered on the Electoral Roll and, if it is, you will receive ballot paper like the first one in this document. However, not all eligible voters are able to attend a polling place on the day of an election or referendum. If this is the case, there are two other ways you can lodge your vote before polling day.
- Absentee votes
An ‘absentee vote’ ballot paper is for those voters who will be in Australia but will not be able to vote at a polling place in their own electoral district. Instead, you can attend any polling place on polling day and have your name and electoral division confirmed on the Electoral Roll. You will then be given an absentee vote ballot paper.
- Postal votes
An eligible voter may be unable to attend a polling place on polling day in any state or territory—for example, if you are on an overseas holiday on polling day. If so, you can register beforehand to lodge a ‘postal vote’. You will be sent a postal vote ballot paper with strict instructions about how to vote correctly, and an addressed envelope to ensure you post your vote to the correct place.
- A ballot paper for a referendum is different to the ballot papers used in local, state and federal elections, in which voters have to allocate a preference vote of ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’ etc in order of their preferred parties and preferred candidates. For a referendum, voters need only write a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in response to the questions presented (as you can see in this example).
