Canberrans casting their vote in the Voice referendum felt a sense of history being made.
For some, the decision came early and easy. For others, it had taken a considerable amount of research and deliberation before they filled in their ballot.
Jayde Marriott, of Latham, flipped back and forth and had to spend a lot of time finding information to help make her decision.
"I actually spent all of Wednesday researching and trying to figure out what I actually wanted to do. And I changed my mind like 50 billion times," she said.
Nate Stanley said he listened to his mother's opinion.
"I'm Aboriginal and Torres Strait myself. So my mum wanted to vote 'yes'," Mr Stanley said.
Kate Johnson, of Latham, said it was really difficult to make a decision but ultimately voted "no".
"I'm a high school teacher at one of the local high schools and I really want the 'yes' to pass," Ms Johnson said.
"But I think because of the confusion around what's actually going to happen, what it involves, there's not really much I could read about it that this is exactly what's going to happen. So my vote went 'no'."
Ms Johnson felt more needed to be done for indigenous Australians, especially in education, but was not sure if the Voice would solve any problems.
Rebecca Adams, of Holt, said she had been very active in the "yes" campaign as part of her involvement with the Community and Public Sector Union.
"It was an obvious choice because wherever there's a minority that's been disenfranchised, union will be behind them. So for us it was a simple connection," she said.
In the course of hundreds of conversations with people leading up to referendum day, Ms Adams said older men who had migrated from Europe were particularly sympathetic to the plight of Indigenous people.
"Migrants have come from a country often because their homelands not being safe anymore," she said.
"And you provide the narrative of all First Nations people, they haven't been safe since invasion, and that we've taken their culture, we've taken their children, we've taken their language, we've taken their law, and frame it in that context for new immigrants, first and even second generation, they kind of understand what it means."
Jared Ross and Jessica Hargreaves were still jetlagged after returning from America yesterday with their baby Sadie.
"It's kind of surreal. It seems exciting that there's this opportunity to be here for something like this," Ms Hargreaves said.
They hadn't heard much about the Voice overseas so had spent time talking to their parents and catching up on the debate. They were still making up their minds as they arrived at Lake Tuggeranong College to vote.
"We've been trying to source information on what the outcome of both votes would be," Mr Ross said.
Democracy sausages and more
School Parents and Citizens Associations and other community groups couldn't pass up the chance to make a few dollars with traditional barbecues and cake stalls at polling booths.
At Macgregor Primary School the cake stall had completely sold out by lunchtime but the barbecue was still doing a steady trade.
Macgregor P&C fundraising coordinator Tracey Barker said money would go towards upgrading the playground.
"We've got a playground master plan set up now. So now it's a case of just trying to raise money to get each part of the plan put in place," Ms Barker said.
Latham Primary P&C had sausages sizzling, sweet treats and some crafts on offer at its polling station. The proceeds were going towards inclusive playground equipment, such as big tunnels and musical instruments.
Grants coordinator Katherine Power said they had plenty of volunteers throughout the day to help out.
"We also had an old community member, we know him as "Poppy". He comes down and helps every time but his eldest grandchild is in year 10. He comes back every year after year to help. So that's really good," she said.
Mrs Power said she got a lot of satisfaction from being part of the P&C, which has organised movie nights, water fun days and children's week activities.
