Key dates and timelines for the 2022 federal election

Before then, a lot has to happen. Behind the spectacle of the six-week election campaign, a clock is ticking, dictating the run of events.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's journey today to Government House in Yarralumla, where he requested the Governor-General dissolve Parliament and set the election date, was only the beginning.

The next steps are set in stone, and the timer starts now.

Now Governor-General David Hurley has agreed to an election date - requested by the Prime Minister - he will dissolve Parliament on Monday. The writs will be issued the same day.

What's a writ? It's a document that commands an electoral officer to hold an election, containing dates for the close of rolls (April 18), the close of nominations (April 21), polling day (May 21) and the return of the writs (June 28).

The Governor-General issues the writs for the House of Representatives elections, and the Senate elections for the ACT and Northern Territory. For the states, Senate election writs are issued by their governors.

In this election, the nation will elect all House of Representatives members, and half of the Senate.

There are 151 seats in the lower house to win this election. Parties need 76 to form government. In the upper house, there are 40 seats to win, including two in the ACT and two in the Northern Territory.

Campaigning really started in November. If there were any doubters still by December, Mr Morrison's thumbs-up for the cameras on his hot lap around Mount Panorama with Mark Skaife that month settled the question. The campaign was well and truly on.

Since then, the tell-tale signs of the campaign have been stark, be it Mr Morrison picking up a welder or washing someone's hair in a salon.

It could even be argued the campaign never ended since the 2019 election. There's a view that Australian federal politicians are permanently campaigning.

Even though the unofficial campaign has been going for some months, things change now the election's been called.

MPs will no longer sit in Parliament. The government enters caretaker mode, when the public service keeps things humming - albeit with limits on decision making - until a new Parliament is elected.

Morrison, Labor leader Anthony Albanese and other senior party figures will intensify their chaotic criss-crossing around the nation in a bid to shore up their parties' votes and win the marginal seats crucial to forming government.

University of Queensland expert Graeme Orr says election campaigns are intended to be periods for voters to focus on the candidates and make their choices, even if many will have already made up their minds.

"It is important because it is a period in which, whether swinging voters or undecided voters, it's where they make their mind up," he says.

However, Professor Orr says the formal campaign period has become more of a ritual, and it is a time where people's views on politics coagulate.

While practically it's in the Prime Minister's power to effectively set an election date - giving governments the advantage of deciding their own timing - it's the Governor-General who has the authority to issue the writs for holding an election.

But, the Governor-General is very unlikely to refuse a request from the government to hold an election at its recommended date.

It's not too late. Electoral rolls close at 8pm seven calendar days after the date the writ is issued. That's Monday, April 18.

This is an important bit of leeway. Without the extra time to enrol, a lot of first-time voters (usually those who have recently turned 18) could find themselves unable to have their say.

It's a deadline that the Howard government changed in 2006, when it introduced laws that shut the rolls on the day the election writs were issued.

After two young Australians argued the changes to shorten enrolment cut-offs were unconstitutional, the High Court in 2010 declared certain parts of the law invalid and the deadline shifted back to seven days after the issuing of writs.

The House of Representatives expires three years after its first sitting date (in this term, it was July 2, 2019). That time limit, set by the framers of Australia's constitution, has a few reasons but ultimately it has the obvious purpose of stopping a government from remaining in power forever.

Elections have to be held no earlier than 33 nor later than 58 days after the writs are issued. That's for a few reasons, but it gives candidates and parties time to make their case to voters, and lets the electoral commission print off ballots and arrange for polling centres. It also sets an upper limit on campaign time - although, governments generally set shorter campaign periods, which tend to favour them.

One exception was the 2016 double dissolution campaign, which went for 54 days (and which the Coalition government, led by Malcolm Turnbull, only narrowly won).

Those time frames give the current House of Representatives an expiry date of July 1, and it means the election for the lower house cannot be held later than September 3.

So why is the election being held in May? Because elections usually combine both the House of Representatives and half the Senate, and this one will be no different. Senators are elected for a maximum of six years (unless they're from the ACT or Northern Territory, where their terms coincide with the lower house). The terms of senators elected in 2016 will expire on June 30.

The constitution requires an election within one year before the seats of retiring senators become vacant. Practical questions of timing between polling day and the swearing-in of new senators traditionally means half-Senate elections cannot be held in June.

Given the 2022 election will cover both the House of Representatives and half the Senate, and allowing for a full election period, the latest it could be held was May 21 this year.

The candidates scrambling for your vote are probably already familiar, whether through campaign corflutes, election advertising or media interviews.

Anyone intending to stand for Parliament must lodge their nominations by noon on Thursday, April 21.

Following that, the Australian Electoral Commission publicly announces nominations 24 hours after nominations close, at noon on Friday, April 22.

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Election day is May 21.

As Professor Orr points out, elections are becoming less and less about a single day and more about a prolonged voting period, due to the rise of pre-poll voting.

Early voting starts 12 days before polling day - so Monday, May 9 this time. It's available, either in person or by post, for people who on election day will be outside the electorate where they are enrolled; will be more than 8km from a polling place or travelling; will be unable to leave their workplace to vote; or who are seriously ill, infirm, due to give birth or are in hospital where they can't vote, among other reasons.

More Australians than ever cast their vote prior to election day in the 2019 poll. The record may be broken again in 2022.

It depends how close the result is. If it's tight, and full of close-fought battles in marginal seats, it's possible the nation won't know the final result for more than a week. For some divisions the wait could be a week or more after the election.

If there's a hung parliament - when no party wins enough seats to form a government on its own - there could also be weeks of negotiations as the major parties try to convince crossbenchers to support them in a minority government.

Usually in recent elections, with the exception of 2010 when the parliament was hung, and 2016 when there was initially no clear winner, the result has been known the night of polling day.