The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has thanked the 105,000-strong temporary election workforce who were working on deck during the recent public decision-making day (21 May).
Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers thanked the nation-wide workforce for their dedication to delivering democracy to their fellow community members.
Mr Rogers said the latest election day, in a pandemic election, posed challenges never seen before in Australian electoral history.
He said he was incredibly buoyed and proud of the way Australians came together on the day.
“A massive national event all designed and conducted to help Australians have their say,” Mr Rogers said.
“Some polling places had fewer staff than planned due to COVID and flu impacts, and polling officials worked long days but the team rallied together to collect the votes and get through the election night count – delivering an election night result to Australia once again,” he said.
“It is also incredibly pleasing that the vast majority of Australians reported a smooth voting experience, including secure telephone voting for people in isolation with COVID-19.”
Mr Roberts said AEC staff had no rest on the Sunday following the election day as work continued on the transportation, receipt, sorting, validation and counting of postal votes.
He said Sunday was primarily a day for logistics, with ballot papers being sorted by division and then transported to counting centres.
“The AEC was able to conduct a postal vote count in every division, the earliest we have ever been able to do this on a Sunday,” he said.
“These indicative postal vote counts early in the count period can provide an important trend for analysts.”
