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Polls will soon open in Australia's first referendum of the 21st century as the nation decides whether to establish an Indigenous Voice to parliament and recognise First Nations people in the Constitution.
Voting will be open between 8am and 6pm across the country, although over five million people – including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – have already cast their ballots.
If opinion polls are to be believed, the referendum appears likely to fail to pass, with more than 50 per cent of Australians planning to vote No while support for the Yes campaign sits in the low-to-mid 40s.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about voting in the referendum
But the proportion of undecided voters, believed to be around the 10-15 per cent range but as high as a quarter in some surveys, has the Yes camp hopeful the referendum will succeed.
Speaking yesterday, Albanese urged Australians to embrace what he described as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.
"This is not my campaign. This is a request from the First Australians made in 2017 at Uluru, after years of consultation with thousands of Indigenous Australians across hundreds of meetings, across many years," he said.Today.
READ MORE: Where you can vote on the Voice and snag a democracy sausage
"And it's a gracious request, just asking fellow Australians to walk with them on the journey towards reconciliation… we can't continue to have a situation with an eight-year life expectancy gap, where an Indigenous young male is more likely to go to jail than to university.
"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for recognition."
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, though, repeated his calls for Australians to vote No.
"I hope it's a No vote on the weekend because it hasn't been properly explained," he said.
"It's divisive. It's permanent once it goes into the Constitution and I just don't think, in their millions, Australians will support it."
For the referendum to succeed, more than 50 per cent of voters across Australia must vote Yes, and there must also be a majority of Yes voters in at least four of the six states.
READ MORE: Give us a seat at the table, not the crumbs: Dodson makes first appearance on Voice campaign
All votes cast today will be counted by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) tonight, along with the majority of pre-poll ballots, meaning there should be a clear indication of whether the motion has succeeded tonight.
But due to counting processes and postal votes taking far longer to be tallied, the AEC won't make an official declaration on the result for up to 14 days.
"The AEC never officially declares results of a federal election or referendum on the night," it says.
READ MORE: Yes and No campaigns make final pitches to voters
"The AEC has to count each ballot paper more than once via a process called 'fresh scrutiny' – this occurs in the days after referendum night.
"Each aspect of the double majority for the referendum has to be mathematically certain before an official AEC declaration or the return of the writ."
Of the 44 referendums in Australian history, only eight have succeeded.
