Voters awake: Australia needs each and every one of you

In modern democracies like Australia's it is essential that the maximum number of people vote at elections. We have had compulsory enrolment since 1911 and compulsory voting since 1924. The latter works — we can confidently predict that around 93 per cent of electors will turn out on November 24. What is less certain is how many eligible citizens are not on the roll and therefore won't vote. Official figures suggest that 93 per cent of citizens living in Australia are on the roll. This is impressive by world standards, but its flip side is that nearly one million citizens are not enrolled to vote. [Introduction