When the Federal Government pushed its controversial Electoral Integrity Act through the Senate last year, some feared that the youth vote could be muted.

This was certainly Labor’s view, with Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd saying “these reforms have one aim and one aim only: to keep as many young people off the electoral roll as possible.”

The Government, of course, denied the charges. It said the reforms were intended to improve efficiency. But it wasn’t hard to see an aura of conspiracy surrounding the new legislation.

One of the biggest changes was an end to the so-called “grace period”, which allowed voters to enrol after an election was called. In past years, this period would extend to seven days after an election was announced. This year, it will be less than one day.

The change clearly affects young people the most. Young people, by definition, are the most likely to be unenrolled.

Most young Australians - and here's the conspiratorial part - traditionally support left-of-centre parties, namely Labor and the minor parties.

Thus, so the allegation goes, not only did the new laws intend to lower the youth vote, they also intended to lower the number of votes cast against the Coalition.

Labor cried foul play and voted against the laws. It described the legislation as a thinly veiled attack on one of its supporter bases, and has promised to scrap the reforms if elected.

But they might not need to. Even if the Coalition did design the laws with disenfranchising youth in mind, it hasn’t worked. The latest figures from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) show that as many young people are enrolled to vote at this election as were enrolled in the last – specifically 1.7 million, or four out of every five people under the age of 24 who can enrol.

AEC spokesman Phil Diak says the figures have a lot to do with the AEC’s recent youth campaign, which focused on informing young people of the new system, and getting them to enrol early.

“Some [figures show] people are acting earlier... therefore it might be that the campaign is working and people are responding,” he says.

The AEC has already spent $15 million trying to get young Australians to enrol before an election is announced. They have visited schools, contacted principals, and run television advertisements.

Earlier this year the AEC even teamed up with Triple J to bring youngsters the “rock enrol” campaign, featuring support from bands like Jet, John Butler Trio and Little Birdy.

Diak says the end result is the AEC has experienced a threefold increase in the number of people enrolling to vote before an election is announced when compared with 2004.

Labor, of course, is also happy with the news. But it’s still sticking to the same message as before: that the Government at least attempted to disenfranchise young voters.

Opposition Youth Spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek says there was no justification for the reforms, and that the Government’s plan has now come unstuck.

“I think the Government was counting on people not getting their act together and not enrolling,” she says.

“The AEC didn’t support the changes... there’s no justification for what the Government’s done.”

Still, she is delighted to hear young people will be voting in as many numbers as last election.

“I’m happy with 80 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds enrolled to vote. I’d be even happier if it was 100 per cent.”

So too would Diak. While the AEC has gotten youth voting levels up to the 2004 figure, he still thinks it can be improved upon.

“I would say to youth, have your democratic say. Don’t wait or you’ll miss out,” he says.

The Government was unavailable for comment. However, it has consistently maintained the Electoral Integrity Act was passed to ease the workload on the AEC, and also, to better protect against voter fraud.

If you are a young person and are not yet enrolled to vote, or need to change address details, please visit http://www.aec.gov.au/

Nick Parkin, 23, will be 'tracking' Kevin Rudd in the second last week of the campaign and reporting to electiontracker.net. He is a postgraduate journalism student at RMIT.

Photo: Jubilo Haku