Australian Electoral Commission tells voters to update own details after offering to do it for them

Last week, a Canberra resident in the federal electorate of Fenner received a letter telling them they could not be 'directly' enrolled by the AEC because of the upcoming vote.

"I recently wrote to you advising that the Australian Electoral Commission intended to update your enrolment to the address below based on information received from another government agency," the letter dated August 16 reads.

"Due to the announcement of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey I will not be able to update you on the electoral roll by the close of deadline."

The letter then advised people to update their own enrolment details online or via an AEC office or Australia Post outlet.

An AEC spokesman said the commission had a program of direct enrolment based on data received from other agencies, including Centrelink and Access Canberra.

The AEC was required by law to give people at least 28 days to accept before their details were updated.

People who received offers to update their details on the electoral roll based on information referred from other agencies shortly before the postal vote was announced were sent a letter telling them instead to enrol themselves.

This is because the deadline they were given, September 10, was after the cut-off for the postal vote, on August 24.

He said those affected were swiftly told, some through SMS or email as well as through an official letter.

However the letter caused confusion among some people.

The AEC confirmed via Twitter as long as people were eligible and submitted a valid and complete enrolment form to the commission by midnight on Thursday, it would still be processed for the marriage survey.

To have your say in the postal survey on same-sex marriage, you must be correctly enrolled to vote by midnight on August 24. Enrol or check your details here: aec.gov.au/enrol/