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Federal Election Dates Since 1901

Elections for the House of Representatives have been held on forty-seven occasions on the dates shown below.

Every election since 1913 has been held on a Saturday, following an amendment to the electoral legislation by the Fisher Labor government. The 1901 election was held over two days, Friday and Saturday. The 1903, 1906 and 1910 elections were held on a Wednesday.

House of Representatives elections are usually held in conjunction with a half-Senate election. Just four stand-alone half-Senate elections have been held, all since 1949. They were on May 9, 1953; December 5, 1964; November 25, 1967; and November 21, 1970. A half-Senate election in Western Australia was held on April 5, 2014, following the invalidation of the election of September 7, 2013.

House of Representatives Election Dates
Election No.
Date
1.
March 29-30, 1901
2.
December 16, 1903
3.
December 12, 1906
4.
April 13, 1910
5.
May 31, 1913
6.
September 05, 1914
7.
May 05, 1917
8.
December 13, 1919
9.
December 16, 1922
10.
November 14, 1925
11.
November 17, 1928
12.
October 12, 1929
13.
December 19, 1931
14.
September 15, 1934
15.
October 23, 1937
16.
September 21, 1940
17.
August 21, 1943
18.
September 28, 1946
19.
December 10, 1949
20.
April 28, 1951
21.
May 29, 1954
22.
December 10, 1955
23.
November 22, 1958
24.
December 09, 1961
25.
November 30, 1963
26.
November 26, 1966
27.
October 25, 1969
28.
December 02, 1972
29.
May 18, 1974
30.
December 13, 1975
31.
December 10, 1977
32.
October 18, 1980
33.
March 05, 1983
34.
December 01, 1984
35.
July 11, 1987
36.
March 24, 1990
37.
March 13, 1993
38.
March 02, 1996
39.
October 03, 1998
40.
November 10, 2001
41.
October 09, 2004
42.
November 24, 2007
43.
August 21, 2010
44.
September 07, 2013
45.
July 02, 2016
46.
May 18, 2019
47.
May 21, 2022

 

The table below shows the number of elections held in each month.

Of the 47 general elections, 34 (72%) were held in the second half of the year, and 25 (53%) were held in October-December.

December is the single most popular month for elections with 12 (26%).

Elections in the first half of the year have been held on 13 occasions (28%). Of these, 5 were held in March, 2 in April, and 6 in May.

The two elections held in July were both double dissolutions.

No election has ever been held in January, February or June.

Three elections have been held on December 10, the most for any single day. Two elections have been held on each of May 18, August 21, December 13 and December 16.

House of Representatives Elections
Month
Number
Percentage
Years
January
0
0%
February
0
0%
March
5
10.63%
02 March 1996
05 March 1983
13 March 1993
24 March 1990
29 March 1901
April
2
4.25%
13 April 1910
28 April 1951
May
6
12.76%
05 May 1917
18 May 1974
18 May 2019
21 May 2022
29 May 1954
31 May 1913
June
0
0%
July
2
4.25%
02 July 2016
11 July 1987
August
2
4.25%
21 August 1943
21 August 2010
September
5
10.63%
05 September 1914
07 September 2013
15 September 1934
21 September 1940
28 September 1946
October
6
12.76%
03 October 1998
09 October 2004
12 October 1929
18 October 1980
23 October 1937
25 October 1969
November
7
14.89%
10 November 2001
14 November 1925
17 November 1928
22 November 1958
24 November 2007
26 November 1966
30 November 1963
December
12
25.53%
01 December 1984
02 December 1972
09 December 1961
10 December 1949
10 December 1955
10 December 1977
12 December 1906
13 December 1919
13 December 1975
16 December 1903
16 December 1922
19 December 1931
Total
47
100%

 

The table below shows the number of elections in descending order of popularity by month.

House of Representatives Elections
Month
Number
Percentage
December
12
25.53%
November
7
14.89%
October
6
12.76%
May
6
12.76%
March
5
10.63%
September
5
10.63%
April
2
4.25%
July
2
4.25%
August
2
4.25%
January
0
0%
February
0
0%
June
0
0%
Total
47
100%

 

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Malcolm Farnsworth
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