The AEC must provide electoral roll data to a range of persons and organisations who are entitled to receive data (entitled entities) under section 90B of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Electoral Act).  These include members of the House of Representatives (MPs), senators and political parties, candidates at federal elections and state/territory electoral authorities.

In addition, the AEC may provide some electoral roll data to other persons and organisations such as prescribed authorities and medical researchers in certain circumstances.

Candidates in a federal election

• A person (or their representative) who has nominated as a candidate for a House of Representatives election is entitled to receive a printed copy of the certified list of voters as soon as practicable after the close of Rolls.

Prescribed authority

• Supply of Elector Information to prescribed authorities

Medical research or a health screening program

• Supply of Elector Information for use in medical research or a health screening program.

Document Verification Service (DVS)

• Accessing the Commonwealth electoral roll for identity verification purposes.

Further information
Contact the Roll Products and Services team for further information by email rps@aec.gov.au or phone 02 6271 4696.

The remaining FAQs refer to the entitlements of members of the House of Representatives (MPs), senators and political parties and the use of an online system, Electoral Roll Access (ERA) to access electoral roll data.

Electoral Roll Access (ERA) is the AEC’s secure online system that allows MPs, senators and political parties to access electoral roll data that they are entitled to. You can find out about ERA at Electoral roll data entitlement.

• You will need to complete the appropriate Request for Access to Electoral Roll Data form available at Electoral roll data entitlement.
• On the form you can select either yourself as the ERA user or a delegate you authorise to download and use the data on your behalf.
• The user must then create an account in ERA to submit the request form. This is a one-off requirement and requires users to prove their identity. This is required so that the AEC can protect access to electoral roll data.
• The AEC will process the request, confirm the entitlement to data, and email ERA users when electoral roll data is available to be downloaded.
• Authorised ERA users can download roll data as delimited text files. The ERA user can open the file in a spreadsheet, or other application that can open delimited text files where they can search and sort data.

The downloaded text file can be opened by any application that can open delimited text files. Opening the text file in Excel is an option, noting that excel has a row limit. Go to Downloading electoral roll data files from ERA and look for ‘Opening the text file in Excel’ for further guidance.

ERA contains an extract of the electoral roll data for each division, state or territory that an MP, senator or registered political party is entitled to. This extract includes:

• the person’s name and enrolled address
• the person’s postal address
• the person’s sex
• the person’s date of birth
• the person’s salutation (if currently listed on the AEC’s roll management system)
• the census collection district (SA1) in which the person lives
• the most recent enrolment date and enrolment transaction number for the person
• whether the person is:
  • not entitled to be enrolled as an elector of the Commonwealth
  • not also enrolled as a state or territory elector
  • less than 18 years old
• whether the person is a general postal voter
• whether the person has only recently been enrolled
• whether the person has re-enrolled and if so:
  • the division and state or territory in which they were previously enrolled
  • the enrolment transaction number for the person’s previous enrolment
• the federal division in which the person lives
• the electoral district for the purposes of state or territory elections in which the person lives
• the local government area in which the person lives
• the Australia Post delivery point identifier for each elector’s address.

Each release of electoral roll data contains enough information to generate a list of new electors (since the previous data release) for a specific electoral area.

No, the AEC is not permitted to provide electronic contact details of electors, including telephone numbers and emails, to ERA users.

The data is updated approximately on a monthly basis. It is also updated immediately following a redistribution of federal boundaries or the close of rolls for a federal election. The AEC will update the ERA Release Schedule around every six months. (The release schedule is subject to change.)

An email is sent to all ERA users when new files, with updated data, are available for download.

No, a party registered with a state or territory electoral commission, or a member of a state parliament, cannot access the Commonwealth Electoral Roll. The data is only available to federal MPs, senators and federally registered parties.

Parties registered with a state or territory electoral commission and members of state parliaments may be entitled to access their state Electoral Roll. The AEC does not manage this access. Contact the relevant state or territory electoral commission for more information.

Yes. A member of the House of Representatives (MP), senator or party secretary may authorise one or more delegates to download and use the electoral roll data on their behalf.

This means you do not have to create an ERA account or use the system yourself.

• To add a new delegate:
  • Complete the appropriate Request for Access to Electoral Roll Data form found on the Electoral roll data entitlement page. On the form select Delegate as the ERA user.
  • The delegate then creates an ERA account to submit this form in ERA.
  • After the AEC has processed the request, the delegate will be able to download the electoral roll data files.
• To remove a delegate, send an email with your request to rps@aec.gov.au.