With polls predicting a close result on election day, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott have been working around the clock to woo undecided voters. But one large and potentially powerful voting bloc has been ignored during the campaign: the homeless. Matthew Knott reports.

Brian has been homeless for 20 years and says he won't be voting at the federal election. Image: Matthew Knott

Hanover, a Victorian welfare agency, found only 43 per cent of homeless people voted in the last federal election, despite being enrolled.

Extrapolated across the national homeless population of 105,000, that means the equivalent of almost an entire Australian electorate didn’t vote in 2007.

In 2006 the Howard Government changed the Electoral Act so that the electoral roll would close the day election writs are issued. Last week the High Court found this provision unconstitutional and said it should be changed. Homeless advocates say that is a major step forward but want more to be done.

They say simpler identification requirements, mobile polling stations and information campaigns would help homeless people participate in the democratic process.

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