People with disability

Assistance at voting centres

Voting in person

If you need help casting your vote, you can take a friend or relative with you, or you can seek assistance from an election official at the voting centre (polling place).

Election officials can help you mark your ballot papers as you wish, or put your completed ballot papers into the ballot box for you.

Venue accessibility

Voting centre locations are published on our website before every election. We provide information about accessibility for every voting centre to help you choose the best venue for your needs.

We rate each venue according to wheelchair accessibility, including whether it:

• is fully wheelchair accessible

• has assisted wheelchair access

• is not wheelchair accessible.

There is a wheelchair accessible voting screen set up in each voting centre.

Learn more about wheelchair accessibility ratings. 

Should you require additional support, an election official can:

• bring the ballot papers out to you

• wait while you complete the ballot papers

• place your ballot papers in the ballot box for you.

Note: the election official will be accompanied by a scrutineer or another election official, family member or friend of your choice to ensure your paper is submitted correctly.

Certain cardboard material, such as the ballot box, have bright contrast markings to assist voters with depth perception.

All voting centres (polling places) have handheld magnifying sheets and maxi pens. If you need either of these items, please ask an election official.

Information for people with intellectual disability

The Council for Intellectual Disability has produced easy read guides for local government elections to assist with voting. 

• 'Your Right to Vote' guide (PDF 2MB)
• Homelessness and voting (PDF 0.6MB

Watch the Council for Intellectual Disability video about voting at the 2024 Local Government elections.

Voting options

If your circumstances make it difficult for you to go to a voting centre on election day, you may be eligible to use an alternative voting option.

Early voting

You can vote in person before the election if you can’t get to a voting centre on election day.

Postal voting

You can apply to vote by postal service at a particular election, or apply to register as a postal voter for every election.

Technology-assisted voting (telephone voting)

You may be eligible to vote over the phone. Find more Iinformation about eligibility and how to use the telephone voting serviceon our Telephone assisted voting page.

Declared facility voting

We visit nursing homes, convalescent homes, hospitals and similar institutions to allow residents to vote onsite before election brailleday.

Braille ballot papers

We can provide braille ballot papers for local government elections only.

Electors who wish to vote using braille ballot papers for upcoming elections will be provided with more details closer to the date. For further information, please submit your enquiry via the Contact us page.

Braille ballot papers can be:

• posted to an elector's enrolled address or an alternative address, or
• delivered to an early voting centre (during pre-poll) or voting centre (on election day) within the elector's council area, where the elector will complete them in person.

The elector will be asked to include the following information in their application:

• to make a declaration that they are unable to read an ordinary ballot paper
• advise how the elector would like to receive their ballot papers from the options above
• provide the postal address the ballot papers will be sent to (if the postal option is chosen)
• indicate which pre-poll or polling place the ballot papers should be delivered to (if the in-person option is chosen)
• provide contact details for the purpose of application updates.

Returned braille ballot papers are confidentially transcribed and added to the rest of the ballot papers to be counted.

Change to electoral legislation regarding 'unsound mind'

Some aspects of the law have changed for the way elections are run in New South Wales (NSW).

People who were previously excluded from enrolling to vote in NSW on the grounds of being of “unsound mind” now have the right to vote in State and local government elections.

Find out more about the change to legislation regarding ‘unsound mind’.

National Relay Service

If you are deaf, hard of hearing and/or have a speech impairment, please contact us through the National Relay Service (NRS).

Choose your access option and ask for 1300 135 736.

Improving participation

We consult with the sector to improve the election experience for all members of the community. Read more about our diversity and inclusion in our action plans and voting options factsheet for people with disability below.