Pangallo demands SA Parliament recall for election Covid rules vote

The Premier says there’s no time for new laws to protect voting rights from Covid crackdowns as a crossbench MP demands parliament be given a say - and fast.

Allowing close contacts of positive Covid-19 cases to leave isolation to vote in the state election is being considered by authorities as the Premier faces calls to urgently recall parliament.

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier on Wednesday said SA Health and the Electoral Commission SA were working together to establish ways of allowing isolating people to vote at the March 19 election.

“I think it’s very difficult to envisage how we would actually have (positive) cases able to come to a centre and vote but we are certainly looking at some possible ways of having close contacts being able to vote safely,” she said.

“Because it is important if there’s large numbers of people who are close contacts or cases that it may have an impact on the election result so of course we will support that as much as we can from a health perspective.”

When we asked SA Health to clarify whether this means that SA Health and the Electoral Commission were considering allowing close contacts to go to polling booths to vote on Match 19, a spokeswoman said that was neither “correct or incorrect” and had no further information.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens. Picture: Emma Brasier

It comes amid concerns thousands of people may not be able to exercise their right to vote on polling day due to Covid rules, which require those who test positive to remain in isolation for 10 days.

The matter has prompted calls for state parliament to be urgently recalled in early February to resolve the matter.

“The election is going to be extremely close, every vote is going to count – particularly in the marginal seats – so we can’t have a situation where thousands of people are disenfranchised from voting,” SA Best MLC Frank Pangallo said.

“It strikes at the heart of democracy.”

Premier Steven Marshall said he would not consider recalling the lower house to parliament, saying there was not enough time to pass legislation before the government entered caretaker mode ahead of the election.

Mr Marshall said the government was “concerned” about isolating people not being able to vote.

“This is one of the reasons why we introduced legislation into the parliament which would have dealt with this issue,” he said.

However, Mr Marshall said the bill was not supported by the Opposition.

Labor disputed this, saying it did vote in favour of the legislation, with amendments, to allow it to pass the upper house in November last year.

The Bill would give the State Co-ordinator the power to allow isolating South Australians to vote over the phone.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said having already passed the upper house, the bill could be dealt with next week if the lower house was recalled.

“It had bipartisan support previously, which means it can pass through the lower house in five minutes,” he said.

Mr Pangallo revealed Electoral Commissioner Mick Sherry during a briefing last week said about 30,000 people were currently in self-isolation in SA and if this figure were repeated in the days before the March 19 poll up to 20,000 eligible voters would be in isolation and unable to leave their homes to vote.

Mr Pangallo said while current modelling predicts the number of people in isolation to drop in the coming weeks, thousands of people are still expected to be affected come election day.

SA Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

SO WHAT ARE THE CURRENT PLANS FOR THE ELECTION?

When is the state election?

The state election is expected to be held on Saturday, March 19. A writ is expected to be issued on February 19, after which the government will enter caretaker mode.

How are some people likely to cast their vote this year?

An increasing number of South Australians are expected to vote early, ahead of the official polling day. It follows a trend of more early voters in state elections in other jurisdictions across Australia during the pandemic. Just over 120,000 people cast their votes early in the 2018 state election. This equated to 10.8 per cent of all votes.

What about those who will be lodging their votes in-person on March 19?

More than 700 polling booths will be open across the state on election day and a number of Covid-safe measures will be introduced at these locations.

Among these, voters will be encouraged to bring their own pen or pencil to cast their vote. Single-use pencils will still be available at polling stations.

Furthermore, a dedicated hygiene officer will be at every polling place and polling officials, who must be fully vaccinated, and electors must wear masks.

There will also be frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces and social distancing must be observed.

More early voting centres will also be available. These are normally open for two weeks before polling day.