Election worker shortages in identified areas

The AEC is today alerting voters in identified areas that recruitment difficulties may lead to a relatively small number of planned polling places being unable to open on election day.

Areas that are a cause for current concern are in the following divisions, with localities listed within this media release.

• Capricornia, Flynn, Kennedy and Leichhardt (QLD)
• Barker and Grey (SA)
• Durack and O’Connor (WA)

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said the vast majority of the nation’s planned 7,000 polling places will be in operation.

“While the impact will likely be limited, and limited to certain areas, voters in identified regional locations who have not accessed an early voting centre, or postal vote, may not have a polling venue in their town on election day,” Mr Rogers said.

“The list of affected areas will reduce as we get closer to Saturday and many local residents will have already accessed the alternative forms of voting available in the Australian system.”

“Recruitment difficulty is exactly what we advised could occur, both earlier in the pandemic and in the early stages of the election period, and why we’ve been urging people to assess all voting options.”

“Current labour shortages in regional areas have been well documented. No frontline service has been immune to resourcing difficulties and we’re running the nation’s biggest in-person, manual event.”

Pulling out all the stops

Direct liaison, advertising and third-party outreach has been happening for more than a year in an effort to recruit the 105,000 polling staff required across Australia.

“We estimate that our staff have made well over 1 million phone calls, they’ve sent more than half a million emails and we’ve had 1.8 millions unique page views on our election jobs webpages since February,” Mr Rogers said.

“Short of handing out blank cheques for work, or accommodating thousands of single-day workers in interstate locations, there is not much more we could have done so far.”

“We’re calling on other organisations to assist as a final push, and investigating all possible staffing models including amalgamating venues.”

“We’re also continuing to engage with local residents in the hope they’ll put their hand up. For some people it may mean that if you want to vote at a polling place in your town on election day, you may have to sign up to work as well.”

Sign up now!

We’re urging people in the areas listed below to register today so that polling places can open on Saturday.

Simply visit aec.gov.au/electionjobs and fill out the registration form. It is quick to complete, polling official positions are paid, you don’t need any experience to register, and we’ll provide you with the training you need.

Editor’s notes:

• Postal vote applications close at 6pm today
• A list of polling locations of current concern are available below.

Areas in need of staff