Almost 30,000 eligible voters who were “missing” from the electoral roll have registered with the Australian Electoral Commission since the gay marriage postal survey was announced.

The influx of new electors has likely been driven by young people signing up to vote for the first time, as older Australians are typically already on the roll from previous elections.

AEC figures show the electoral roll grew by 29,273 voters between the Marriage Law Survey being made public on August 8 and August 16.

A further 323,630 updates of electors’ details have been processed by the commission.

Addressing concerns that Australians in remote communities or overseas may not receive their forms on time, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has flagged them being able to lodge their opinion in the survey by phone or over the internet.

Deputy Australian Statistician Jonathan Palmer told a Senate inquiry into the $122 million postal survey on Thursday that a paper form would not work for everyone and the ABS would strive to give all eligible voters an opportunity to respond.

However, he said the ABS was still considering which form its “inclusion strategy” would take.

To clear a legal hurdle that risked preventing silent electors from having their say, the ABS will ask the AEC to send about 113,000 forms to those listed on the electoral roll only by name - not address - for security reasons.

Insisting the ABS has learnt lessons from the 2016 Census bungle, Mr Palmer said Australians should be confident their voice would be counted if their survey form was returned on time and without “extraneous material” such as glitter in the envelope.

Provided several High Court challenges fail and the postal survey goes ahead, the results will be announced on November 15.