A silent elector is a person who is registered to vote but has their address excluded from the publicly available electoral roll to protect their safety or the safety of their family. In Australia, the silent elector status was introduced in 1984 through amendments made to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. To register as a silent elector, a person must apply to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and provide a statutory declaration explaining the risk to themselves or their family if their address is included on the public electoral roll. The AEC then considers the application and decides whether to grant silent status. It is important to note that having a silent phone number, not wanting to receive junk mail, or ones profession are not valid reasons alone for granting silent elector status.

In Australia, at the close of rolls on 7 September 2004 for the last Federal Election, there were 45,438 silent electors, out of a total enrolment of 13,098,461, which amounts to 3.4 percent. In New Zealand, there are 10,059 electors on the Unpublished Roll from a total of 2,868,471 in the Main Roll database, which amounts to 0.35 percent.

It is important to note that registering as a silent elector does not exempt a person from their obligation to vote in federal, state, and local government elections. In Australia, there are options available for people in refuges or temporary housing, and those with no fixed address to vote in federal elections.