‘Just purely understaffed’: Voters voice anger over election day handling in Cairns

Cairns voters have called out apparent understaffing and mismanagement at this year’s local government election after battling hour-long queues at polling booths around the region.

Voters mark their ballot paper and cast their vote at the polling booth at the Down Park Community Centre, Edmonton. Picture: Brendan Radke

Cairns voters have called out apparent understaffing and mismanagement at this year’s local government election after battling hour-long queues at polling booths around the region.

Residents took aim at the Electoral Commission of Queensland after enduring long queues at multiple polling centres in hot conditions, with some even told ballot papers had run out before voting closed at 6pm.

Bentley Park resident Russell Jack who attended the polling centre at St Therese’s School, the only venue within Division 2, said the venue was underprepared for voter turnout.

“It was just purely understaffed,” Mr Jack said.

“There was a big L-shaped queue and about a 20 minute wait just to get into the building at 9.30am, I was talking to absentee voters in line and they said they had already been there an hour,” he said.

“When you got into the building there was only one person to handle the absentee votes

and only three people to handle the rest of the crowd; there was no one outside ushering to help bring the elderly in, the disabled had to find their own way to the front of the queue.

“People were even lining up at the ballot boxes to put their votes in,” he added.

Voters who attended the Cairns State High School, Edge Hill State School, White Rock and Edmonton polling centres also experienced long delays.

“I waited for 50 minutes then walked out; they closed doors at six but everyone inside could still vote, I walked out at 6.10pm because I could see there was another hour’s wait left,” a Cairns SHS voter said.

Voters who attended polling venues in Divisions 2 and 3 were told ECQ officials had run out of ballot papers, with a handful of frustrated voters voicing their grievances to the ECQ on social media.

“(Division) 3 Cairns local elections ran out of ballot papers and took over an hour to get more,” Jayne Steinborner said on Facebook.

“Division 2 in Cairns. One check-in person, other officials standing around doing nothing, waited for over an (hour) and they ran out of ballot papers,” Krissy Reid commented.

An ECQ spokesperson said while ballot papers did run out in some locations, they were quickly replenished by staff.

“Every Queensland elector who presented at a polling place before 6pm and wanted to cast a vote was able to cast their vote yesterday,” the spokesperson said.

“Queues on election day are not uncommon and while there were long queues in some places, in many others the wait time for electors was very short.

“Our staff worked diligently to get people through as quickly as possible and we are very appreciative of the work of our team and are very comfortable with staffing levels throughout the voting period, including on election day.

“As we do following any election event, we will evaluate how this event has been delivered and make any required adjustments.”

Originally published as ‘Just purely understaffed’: Voters voice anger over election day handling in Cairns