Why your polling booth may not be open in Saturday’s federal election

Voters may be forced to travel long distances to cast their ballot in Saturday’s election because of an issue that’s changing “minute by minute”.

Some regional polls are at risk of being closed on election day as Covid and other illnesses create staff shortages.

Polling booths in Capricornia, Flynn, Leichhardt in Queensland, Barker and Grey in South Australia, and Durack and O‘Connor in Western Australia have been most affected.

“It’s changing on a minute-by-minute basis,” Australian electoral commissioner Tom Rogers told ABC News Breakfast on Thursday morning.

“I‘m very confident that the actual number by Saturday morning will be fairly manageable, but we are working overtime, as you can imagine.”

In one 36-hour period in Hobart, 90 Australian Electoral Commission staff withdrew from working this weekend as a result of Covid or other illness.

Telephone voting is available for the first time for voters who test positive with Covid-19. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Mr Rogers reminded Australians casting their vote to exercise patience when dealing with polling both staff.

“All of the staff we’ve got working there are temporary staff – they’re your parents, grandparents, siblings,” he said.

“These people have given their time to provide an amazing community service and they should be treated with respect regardless of how long you have to wait.”

The AEC is encouraging voters to consider pre-polling at one of around 550 early-voting centres that are available until Friday.

As of Wednesday night, 3.9 million Australians have voted via pre-poll, while around 2.7 million have applied for a postal vote.

Close to 25,000 votes have been submitted at mobile polling stations that are available in remote communities.

“Much greater numbers than we saw at the last event and a huge increase in postal votes” Mr Rogers said.

Almost four million Australians have already lined up to cast their vote at pre-polling booths across the country. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Brendan Beckett

Forty per cent of Australians voted ahead of the last election day, either by postal or pre-poll, and Mr Rogers said it was possible that half of eligible voters this year could have voted before Saturday.

Telephone voting is available for the first time for people who tested positive for Covid-19 after 6pm on Tuesday, May 17.

Already 1300 people have registered for that service, which will become available from 8.30am on Thursday.

“It certainly seems that we are heading towards what many will consider a voting period rather than a voting day,” Mr Rogers said.

“Now, that of course is a matter for parliament, but Australians are certainly speaking that they want to use pre-polling and postal when they qualify to do so.”

Originally published as Why your polling booth may not be open in Saturday’s federal election