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Posted: 2023-10-13 06:38:11

It's been 24 years since Australia held a constitutional referendum, and if you're aged under 42, you won't ever have voted in one before.

There are a lot of similarities with elections, but a few key differences that mean referendum night will look a little different.

Here's what to expect when polls close in the Voice to Parliament referendum and the counting begins on October 14.

How to vote in the Voice to Parliament referendum?

Referendum day itself feels a lot like a typical election.

Schools, churches and community centres across the country will be transformed into polling booths.

Most people will be able to rock up to the same place they voted at in last year's federal election, fill out and submit the ballot, and grab a democracy sausage on the way out.

If you're still yet to vote, you can find your nearest polling place here.

There's only one ballot paper, and you'll be asked to write either Yes or No in the box.

When will referendum vote counting start?

At 6pm local time, the polling places will close their doors and counting will begin in earnest.

That means polls will close first in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT (6pm AEDT).

The other states will follow in this order as the clock strikes six there: South Australia (6:30pm AEDT), Queensland (7pm AEDT), the Northern Territory (7:30pm AEDT), and finally Western Australia (9pm AEDT).

Counting begins when the polls close in that state, so we'll start to get figures from the first states while people are still voting in other states.

When will we find out the referendum result?

At this referendum there's just one ballot paper, and one box.

That makes them much quicker to count.

It means we'll probably get a good percentage of the vote counted fairly quickly, perhaps within an hour or two of polls closing.

If it's not close, it's likely we'll know the overall outcome of the referendum before Western Australia has even finished voting.

Where can we follow the referendum results?

Just like a general election, ABC News will be providing a full results service for the referendum, led by our Chief Elections Analyst Antony Green. Coverage starts at 5:30pm AEDT.

Live updates will be available on our results page, there'll be full coverage of the latest updates on our live blog, and rolling coverage on ABC TV and iview,  along ABC Radio and the Listen app.

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