Victorians go to the polls on Saturday 28 November, and there is one date worth putting in your phone well before that: the electoral roll closes at 8pm on Tuesday 3 November. According to the Victorian Electoral Commission, that is a week earlier than at previous elections.
It is the kind of administrative change that sounds trivial until it isn't. Anyone who has moved house since the last state election, changed their name, or is turning 18 between now and election day has a shorter runway than they may be assuming — and once the roll shuts, it shuts.
The eligibility test itself is unchanged. The VEC's enrolment page says you can enrol if you will be 18 or older on election day, you are an Australian citizen, and you have lived at your address in Victoria for longer than a month. The commission runs both a "check my enrolment" and an "update my enrolment" service online, which is the fastest way to confirm your details are current rather than assuming they are.
The rest of the calendar follows quickly. Writs are issued at 6pm on Tuesday 3 November, the same evening the roll closes. Nominations open at 9am the next day, Wednesday 4 November, and close at 12 noon on Monday 9 November for all candidates. Registration of how-to-vote cards closes at 12 noon on Friday 20 November.
For those who would rather not queue on the day, early voting runs from Wednesday 18 November to Friday 27 November, closing at 6pm on that final Friday. Applications for a postal vote close earlier, at 6pm on Wednesday 25 November. On election day itself, polling places are open from 8am to 6pm.
What is actually being decided is the whole parliament. As the Parliament of Victoria sets out, the state has 88 electorates for the Legislative Assembly, each returning a single MP, while the Legislative Council is drawn from eight regions electing five members apiece — 40 upper-house seats in total.
The result will form Victoria's 61st Parliament, an institution whose first sitting members were elected back in 1856. Whatever the campaign turns into over the next four months, the mechanics are already locked in.
The practical takeaway is small but real: the single most common way to lose a vote is not turning up, it is turning up enrolled at an address you left two years ago. Checking takes a minute, and the window to fix it now closes on 3 November.
