Poll delays another new normal for Territorians in COVID-19 era
IF you’ve been feeling like this election has been dragging on a while, you’re not alone. In the NT, our vote counting process has been going on a bit longer this year for a couple of reasons related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Opinion
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IF you’ve been feeling like this election has been dragging on a while, you’re not alone.
In the NT, our vote counting process has been going on a bit longer this year for a couple of reasons.
First of all the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the NT Electoral Commission had to limit the number of staff and scrutineers on hand this year.
Votes cast by electors temporarily residing in the Howard Springs quarantine facility could also not be counted until a few days after the election based on a recommendation from NT Health.
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Changes to the Electoral Act in 2016 that extended the deadline for postal votes also pushed out counting by an extra week this election.
The changes were made to accommodate irregular mail services and to take in to account when mail deliveries are made.
This should be reassuring to those NT voters interstate at the moment whose mail may be delayed due to COVID-19.
The NTEC also has a lot more declaration votes to process this year after changes were made in the NT to allow eligible people who turn up on election day to get enrolled and vote.
About 2100 of those declaration votes have been received during this election.
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Each of those submitted votes needs to go through preliminary checks by the NTEC and scrutineers on top of being sent to the Australian Electoral Commission to be verified before it can be counted.
This longer process is just another new normal Territorians will have to get used to.
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