As the federal election rapidly approaches, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has warned that election results may be delayed by the number of postal votes it needs to count.
Outlining how people who test positive for COVID-19 in the coming days can vote, the national Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said that while elections were in-person community events, the AEC continued to accommodate necessary changes for the pandemic.
“We’re accounting for the pandemic in many aspects of election delivery, including options for COVID-19 positive voters in isolation,” Mr Rogers said.
“If you test positive today …… you’ll be in isolation until after polls close on Saturday,” he said.
“Applications this late in the election period should only be submitted by voters who have no other voting option.”
Mr Rogers said that so far, the AEC had received more than 2 million postal vote applications, up from 1.5 million at the previous federal election in 2019.
“There is a sting in the tail with so many postal vote applications this election, and that is the count,” Mr Rogers said.
“We simply cannot count postal votes on election night – we’re already at the limits of our staffing capacity, and work health and safety responsibilities, with the count of election day and pre-poll votes”.
He said that with 105,000 staff, the AEC was temporarily one of the nation’s largest employers, “which is an undoubted resourcing challenge during COVID-19.”
Mr Rogers said postal vote counts would commence on Sunday afternoon (22 May) following election day, brought forward from the 2019 timetable when the count commenced on the Tuesday after election day.
“If it’s a close result in individual seats, or overall in the House of Representatives, this level of postal votes makes an election night indication of who forms government less likely,” he said.
“In many ways the speed of the count is the biggest effect COVID will have on how this election is run.”
Providing further information for people who test positive to COVID-19 this close to the election Mr Rogers said there might be access to a telephone vote.
