Legal challenges loom over ballot paper debacle as new mayor Raven pushes Olympic venues

Legal challenges loom in two Logan electorates after at least three polling booths ran out of ballot papers on election day as the city’s new mayor pushes for a slice of the Olympic venue funding.

Voters in the queue at 5pm on Saturday at Mabel Park State High School. Some walked away others were allowed to remain in the queue even after polls closed at 6pm. Pictures: Contributed

Logan’s mayor elect Jon Raven will have worked with at least nine of the new council’s councillors after five of the city’s 12 councillors were reinstated unopposed on the weekend.

Legal challenges are likely in at least two divisions where voters were subjected to queues of more than two hours and polling booths ran out of ballot papers.

Division 12, which takes in Beenleigh and Eagleby, remains a cliffhanger with 246 votes between the two candidates — incumbent Karen Murphy and Nate Hamon.

Volunteers for Mr Hamon reported on Saturday afternoon that there were people leaving voting centres in Eagleby without voting after waiting in line for more than an hour.

Former Logan councillor Russell Lutton said he believed there were grounds for a legal challenge in some divisions where centres ran out of ballot papers and people were forced to queue for nearly two hours.

Centres in Logan’s Division 5 at Burrowes, Crestmead and Marsden ran out of ballot papers on Saturday afternoon along with centres in other divisions at Mable Park and Beenleigh having the same issue.

In Logan’s Division 5, where three candidates were vying for a vacant seat, Mr Lutton said there were less than 300 votes between the first two candidates and people had been walking without voting because of the lack of ballot papers which he said “could have made all the difference”.

Former Logan councillor Russell Lutton said the election management was a shambles.

“This is was the worst management of an election in the 50 years I have been involved in politics and the handling in Logan was a shambles,” Mr Lutton said.

“We heard on Friday that pre-polling numbers were low and so to expect more voters on election day – but ECQ didn’t put on more staff and in fact told people on Thursday they were not needed.

“I do not understand how they can run out of ballot papers, which are the key component of an election.

“So many people walked out in disgust and said they were not voting and would rather pay the fine.

“It was not the ECQ staff at the polling stations who were the problem – someone above them needs their head to roll.”

Logan voters were forced to stand in line for up to two hours at some booths and at others ballot papers ran out.

On Saturday, the Electoral Commission of Queensland said it was aware of longer waiting times at polling booths including Mabel Park.

The commission said queuing times at polling booths varied depending on the booth and time of day, with most times reported to be 15 minutes or less.

ECQ said it had more than 7000 staff working at over 1000 polling booths across Queensland on election day.

“The ECQ has received very few reports from Returning Officers about issues at booths,” the commission said as booths shut at 6pm.

“The ECQ will be reviewing data and turnout numbers from today to inform planning for election day for the State general election in October.”

More than 1.1 million early votes were cast at 160 early voting centres across the state over the past two weeks and more than 440,000 postal ballots were sent out.

Meanwhile, Mr Raven, who was contacted but declined the Courier-Mail’s request to comment, defended raising more than $183,875 in donations for his election campaign and said he followed the rules.

Mr Raven, speaking publicly for the first time on Monday as mayor-elect, said he would push the state government to consider building an Olympic stadium in Meadowbrook or Beenleigh.

Logan mayor-elect Jon Raven celebrates his victory. Picture: Jon Raven Facebook

Records show that Deen family members Rahiaan, Umar and Ray Deen were donors.

He said all of his donations were “transparent and declared” and none were from property developers.

He also said he could not give any of his donors an advantage or discuss them with other councillors.

After taking over the city’s top job, Mr Raven said he would be working to push the state government to lift a freeze on infrastructure funding.

He said it cost $60,000 to provide infrastructure to every new greenfield lot developed in the city but a funding cap limited the council to only charging developers $30,000.

Instead, he said he wanted developers to pay the water and sewerage charges.

Originally published as Legal challenges loom over ballot paper debacle as new mayor Raven pushes Olympic venues