About us
The Victorian Electoral Commission is an independent and impartial statutory authority established under Victoria’s Electoral Act 2002.
The VEC conducts Victorian State elections, local council elections, certain statutory elections and polls, and commercial and community elections. The VEC maintains the Victorian electoral enrolment register, conducts electoral research and boundary reviews.
Under the Electoral Act 2002, the VEC is also tasked with the provision of education services which promote public awareness of electoral matters.
Passport to Democracy
The Passport to Democracy, civics and citizenship education program, has been developed in 2008. Since then the program has been regularly updated.
Apart from providing the resources (online since 2015), the VEC supports teachers by conducting professional development sessions and the delivery of the election lesson of the resource. The professional development sessions are available to schools upon request.
The aim of the program is to facilitate young people’s understanding of electoral matters, by investigating issues in their communities and learning how to take action on those issues. Through this practical learning, students will develop and understand that politics affects them and that there are ways in which they can participate in a democracy in addition to voting.
Priority Booking Policy
Passport to Democracy (PTD) is a free Civics & Citizenship learning program offered by the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) that aims to provide an equitable service across Victoria. PTD prioritises schools which have a higher percentage of young people who come from communities that are traditionally under-represented in the electoral process.
To ensure the equitable provision of the program individual teachers at Years 3-10 are provided support for a maximum of ONE* face to face PTD visit per year to build their capability to run activities such as mock elections independently in the future. This will allow the VEC to provide assistance to as many teachers and students as possible, from all school sectors.
We thank you for your understanding and ongoing support of our program.
*Note:
1. The PTD team will continue to offer unlimited remote/online PTD sessions and resource support to any teachers who request it.
2. This limit applies to individual teachers. It does not preclude other teachers from the same school but different year levels from booking our incursions/mock elections.
3. Teachers/schools are welcome to book unlimited electoral/enrolment information sessions for senior students (Years 11-12).
If you have any further questions, please speak to one of our experienced and qualified educators: education@vec.vic.gov.au
Contact Us
Phone, address and other key contact details are on our contact page.