AUSTRALIA: Marriage Survey Ends With 78% Response

Australia’s News Corp outlet reports:

And now, it’s over to the vote counters, and the politicians. The $122 million same-sex marriage survey closes tonight, with final Australian Bureau of Statistics figures revealing 12.6 million Australians voted in the poll.

With just hours until the survey closes, that’s a return rate of 78.5 per cent as of last Friday. The final figure will increase slightly once votes cast between last Friday and today’s deadline are accounted for. Drop-off locations at ABS offices in all capital cities will accept survey form drop-offs until 4.30pm.

The return rate has swamped other voluntary polls such as Britain’s Brexit, the last US presidential election, and Ireland’s own same-sex poll.

The final count will finally put to rest conflicting polls throughout the campaign. Initial polls indicated the Yes vote would prevail, but last week a university study flew in the face of previous polls, forecasting a narrow win for No, based on analysis of Twitter data.

The Guardian reports:

Australia appears on track for a yes vote in the same-sex marriage postal survey when results are reported next week, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, where 64% of people who have voted say they’ve cast a yes ballot.

With the survey closing on Tuesday, the new poll of 1,792 voters shows 86% of the sample reporting they have voted – up 11% in a fortnight. More voters over the age of 55 say they have voted in the survey (94%) than people under the age of 35 (80%).

Of the people who have already voted, 64% report voting yes (up 4% from two weeks ago) and 31% no (down 3%) – with 5% declining to answer. Groups most likely to have voted yes are Greens voters (92%), Labor voters (79%), those aged 18-34 (77%) and women (69%).