Covid-19 isolation rules to block thousands of South Australian voters

The SA poll is a test case for how federal election officials deal with ­voters who fall ill after the cut-off date for postal and pre-poll votes.

South Australia’s Liberal Premier, Steven Marshall. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Thousands of South Australians could be denied the right to vote at the state election as a result of isolation rules for ­people infected with Covid-19.

There are fears the same problem could affect this year’s federal poll, with the SA election being viewed by the AEC as a test case for how states deal with ­voters who fall ill after the cut-off date for postal and pre-poll votes.

The South Australian Elec­toral Commissioner has told MPs that on current Covid numbers, about 30,000 people will be in isolation in the fortnight prior to the March 19 poll.

Under the strict SA Health rules, infected people are prevented from leaving their homes or seeing anyone until they have been cleared of having Covid.

This means they would not have enough lead time to cast a pre-poll or postal vote for the election if they are infected or ­exposed on election eve.

The number of people affected could extend beyond those with Covid-19 to include thousands more who are close contacts of those with the virus and also in isolation.

South Australian Electoral Commissioner Mick Sherry

In a private briefing to state MPs last week, South Australian Electoral Commissioner Mick Sherry said if the current ­figure of 30,000 people in ­isolation was repeated in the days before the election – after postal vote applications closed – roughly 20,000 of them would be eligible voters ­prevented from leaving their homes to vote.

SA Best upper house MP Frank Pangallo said the revelations were “startling” and there was a risk that a potentially close election could be corrupted by the process.

“It strikes at the heart of democracy,” Mr Pangallo said.

“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.”

Mr Pangallo said he took no reassurance from SA Health’s forecasts that cases would continue to decline, noting that the election was now fewer than seven weeks away.

“We haven’t seen the details of SA Health’s modelling so we won’t know if we can trust it ­because it’s really only guess work,” he said.

“Another spike in infections would create havoc on polling day and potentially delay the ­result.”

Mr Sherry was in meetings with SA Health to resolve the situation on Tuesday and told The Australian that he was still working towards a resolution.

He said the problem in South Australia had been compounded by the fact that proposed laws to allow telephone voting did not make it to a final vote in state parliament this term.

“As things stand, there will be a significant number of people who can’t vote but SA Health realise the importance of all this and we are still working towards a solution,” Mr Sherry said.

“Federally, they are facing the same dilemma we are facing and are looking with interest as to how we deal with the ­situation.

“We have put a lot of effort into making sure the election ­itself is safe for everyone, with guarantees that all staff are vaccinated, and the use of masks, but in addition to making it as safe as possible it must also be as accurate as possible, which obviously means ­ensuring that everyone who is ­eligible to vote can vote.”

The number of people in isolation for the federal election could end up in the hundreds of thousands.

Nationally, there are 292,581 active cases in isolation. States and territories stopped monitoring close and casual contacts in isolation following a nat­ional cabinet decision in December.

Mr Sherry said the problem had been made more complicated by the lack of hard numbers around how many close contacts would be in isolation on election eve, and whether they too would be struggling to vote.

The situation has prompted calls from Mr Pangallo for ­parliament to be recalled to reconsider the Electoral Act amendments and allow for telephone voting.

“Some electorates at the last state election changed hands by a clutch of votes.

“It would be a travesty if ­government was handed to a ­particular party after thousands were prevented from exercising their democratic right through no fault of their own,” Mr Pangallo said.

Liberal Premier Steven Marshall’s government holds 25 seats in the lower house.

Labor holds 19 and there are three independents.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: REMY VARGA