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When Laura Cross walked out of the Australian embassy in Buenos Aires this week, she celebrated by searching for a “democracy hotdog” – to tide over her cravings for the classic election-day sausage sizzle.
Cross, who has been travelling through South America, is one of thousands of Australians voting abroad. In her case, the process was seamless.
“I just rocked up and showed my passport,” the 25-year-old says.
Not everyone’s plans turned out as well.
One traveller who contacted Guardian Australia from central Asia found himself frustratingly caught out, having left the country too early to vote in person but too late to receive a postal voting form – and thousands of kilometres from his nearest in-person polling place in Moscow.
But the Australian Electoral Commission says it has made a big effort to allow as many people as possible to vote from outside the country. More than 111 voting centres have been set up across 83 countries, more than at any previous federal election.
It’s a sharp contrast to pared-back services during the pandemic. In 2022, only 19 overseas centres could offer in-person voting – down from 85 locations in 2019.
An AEC spokesperson said that as of Tuesday, there had been more than 26,000 votes cast at overseas voting centres, with more than 4,000 postal votes returned from overseas.
About 39,000 Australians either voted in person at or returned their postal votes via overseas centres in 2022. That rose substantially during the 2023 voice referendum, when 62,000 in-person votes and 8,200 postal votes were recorded across 107 overseas centres.
Tae Young, who voted in Malta, says it was “much more chill” than in Australia.
“You want to do the right thing and do it correctly. You try and look it up beforehand, but the general vibe was just to rock up and it would be fine.
“Me and my parents went to vote. Because we were so early it was pretty empty, but we were number 80 and we got there at lunchtime. The electoral commission people were chatty with everyone.”
As for many travellers abroad, the rituals of voting – and perhaps a familiar drawl in the air – were a reminder of home.
“Even the security guard that they had hired was an Aussie, which I thought was super funny,” says Young.
Voting is compulsory for those in Australia but optional from overseas, where it requires a bit more effort. People can use either in-person or postal voting options – online voting is not available – and those relocating indefinitely can use the form to remove themselves from the electoral roll, with the option to re-enrol if they return.
Phone voting is reserved for rare cases, like Australians stationed in Antarctica. In 2022, 65 voters at Australia’s Antarctic bases dialled in their ballots from the ice. The same year, over 74,000 exemptions were granted to Australians affected by Covid-19.
This year in the Maldives, Australians in the capital Malé escaped tropical sun and humidity to cast their vote inside the Australian High Commission building.
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With new centres open in places including Niue, Palau and the Marshall Islands, there are more options for far-flung voters – which an AEC spokesperson called “a great achievement” after the upheaval of the pandemic.
“Our footprint grew exponentially for the 2023 referendum and now again for the 2025 federal election,” they said.
In tiny Kiribati, 24 voters came to the booth for the referendum – for the 2022 election, there were none. In Malta for the referendum, turnout leapt from just 22 postal votes to 362 in-person ballots.
In recent years, buzz has grown in expat hubs such as London and Bali.
In Bali, 740 votes were cast for the 2022 election, rising to 1,072 at the 2023 referendum.
The 2022 federal election saw 11,621 votes lodged at Australia House in London, increasing to 18,080 for the referendum.
Outside on the first day of in-person voting for 2025 in the UK, a queue snaked down the street, drawing at least 1,000 votes.
An overseas liaison officer from the Australian High Commission in the UK said they were proud to host the “largest overseas voting centre” and recreate some of the election-day atmosphere from home.
“It’s striking how similar voting overseas is to voting in Australia, and we’re proud to provide a sense of home to Australians abroad.”
New York (3,227 votes), Hong Kong (2,894), Berlin (2,356), Singapore (2,230) and Ho Chi Minh City (1,181) also reported strong voting numbers for the 2023 referendum.
While Covid disruptions make international comparisons tricky, the AEC says the 2025 overseas voting operation is “the best it’s ever been”.
Still, hurdles remain.
The Labor party’s international arm, ALP Abroad, warned in a 2022 submission that overseas voting laws “discriminate against Australians abroad” by making the process more complicated than many expect.
“Australians are raised in a culture of universal compulsory voting assuming that they will always be able to vote when overseas and are unaware that they have to take special steps to keep their vote,” the submission said.
Sean Bartlett, a dual Japanese-Australian citizen living in Fukuoka, found the process trickier than he expected.
Originally planning to cast an in-person vote in Tokyo for his Queensland electorate of Griffith, Bartlett realised too late he wouldn’t be able to make the trip. Instead, he applied for a postal vote – and after a tense wait, received his ballot in Kitakyushu.
Bartlett says he is is glad to have taken part, but surprised by the logistical effort required, including the “principle” of having to pay for postage back to the embassy.
Acting electoral commissioner, Jeff Pope, noting the AEC does not “control or operate overseas postal services”, has urged Australians abroad to either attend a voting centre or apply for postal votes early. (Postal votes must be received by the AEC by the 13th day after polling day to be counted.)
“We are conscious that there might be external circumstances, such as the geographical locations of some electors or postal delays, that might prevent people from voting.”
