Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Early voting has opened in the NT...the AEC's Geoff Bloom lets us know where and how you can do it

Transcript

Early voting has opened in the NT...the AEC's Geoff Bloom lets us know where and how you can do it · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And now we know that today's day that you can
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: begin early voting, but only some people are able to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: joining us on the line right now is the director
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of Operations with the Australian Electoral Sorry, the Australian Electoral
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Officer Northern Territory Branch. I do apologize, Jeff, I think
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: we've certainly confused that title there. I'm Jeff Bloom. Good
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Jeff, Good morning, Katie mate.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I know that today is today that some people are
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: eligible to vote early? Who can.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: So you're right. First, of our face to face polling
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  Speaker 2: services open today, so early voting centers across a number
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: of locations in the Northern Territory, and of course our
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: remote area mobile polling teams are out and about from today.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: So for people that can't get to a polling place
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  Speaker 2: on polling day, the optionnaire is for them to cast
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: an early vote for this election.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: And so do you just rock up and say that
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: you're not able to vote on polling day for a
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: certain reason or do you have to get pre permission?
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: So there's eligibility criteria on our website. So for example,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: if you're working on polling day or you're looking after
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: a sick family member for example, or any other reason
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  Speaker 2: that you may not get to a polling place, including
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: if you don't live within a kilometers of a polling
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  Speaker 2: place that's open on the day. And there's a couple
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: of other criteria as well, so a number of things
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  Speaker 2: that might make people eligible. So look at the website
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  Speaker 2: before you head down to the voting center, or you
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: can ask the polling staff when.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: You arrive and where are you able to vote early?
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So the early voting centers today, so we have one
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  Speaker 2: in Darwin corner of Mitchell and Briggs Street. We have
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  Speaker 2: one in the Darwin Airport precincts, so that's the Eaton
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  Speaker 2: is the suburb there next to Kingpin. We also have
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  Speaker 2: one in Palmerston fifteen Palmerston Circuit, and also one in
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  Speaker 2: Coolinga and then further down the track we've got a
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  Speaker 2: a PPDC as we call them, pre Pole Voting Center
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  Speaker 2: in Catherine and Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 1: So there's plenty around And are you expecting quite a
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: few people to vote early?
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: We really are. So if I think back to twenty
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  Speaker 2: nineteen day one of our early voting centers, it was
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  Speaker 2: really busy in the regions and also in and around
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  Speaker 2: dah and so we expect a reasonable number of people
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  Speaker 2: to turn out today. We're ready, We've got lots of
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: people working in those locations. Everyone's very excited. We'll I
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: think in terms of queues, if I think about that
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: day one and other times, there could be cues. We've
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: got some COVID measures in place there. We just ask
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  Speaker 2: collectors to be patient. We'll get people through as quickly
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: as possible. We've got some learnings from other elections that
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: have been held around the country during COVID times, so
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  Speaker 2: we think we've got a good plan as to how
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  Speaker 2: we move people through quickly. But certainly lots of options
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: to vote, and we'd ask people to jump out early.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So Jeff, do you know if you've had big crowds
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  Speaker 1: down there so far this morning at any of the
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  Speaker 1: polling centers.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I mean getting some reports from my team. All
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: of our centers opened on time this morning, so that
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  Speaker 2: was a thirty this morning. I haven't heard that we've
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: had those ques that I'm st alluding to, and I
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: think things are running smoothly in terms of numbers. We'll
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: know at the end of the day once we start
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: to analyze how many votes were issued and that's going
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: to give us a sense of what we might expect
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: over the next two weeks.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, are you expecting voters to turn out in record numbers?
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Has there been quite a bit of work to try
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and make sure that everybody does turn up and vote.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Well, A communication is definitely out there. We've dropped information
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: in the people's letterboxes. We've got radio ads, TV ads,
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  Speaker 2: social media ads. We're trying to make everything sure everyone
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  Speaker 2: knows the opportunities there to vote. It's all here and
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  Speaker 2: now the website has all the polling locations there. So
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  Speaker 2: we're doing everything we can to alert people to what
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: their options are and again we're just encouraging everyone to
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  Speaker 2: be involved.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Well. Jeff Bloom, the Australian electoral Officer for the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: We always appreciate your time. Thanks for having a chat
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: with me today.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you