WA Electoral Commission slammed over election day failures

Saturday’s WA state election was marred by shortages of ballot papers, lengthy queues and a painfully slow count.

Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman has criticised the “spectacular failure” of the Western Australian Electoral Commission and promised that its federal counterpart will not repeat the mistakes made at the weekend.

Saturday’s WA election was marred by shortages of ballot papers and lengthy queues at some booths, while the count has progressed painfully slowly. The WA Electoral Commission, which ran the election, had outsourced recruitment to a labour hire firm for the first time and there have been widespread reports of issues with polling booth workers who appeared to have received insufficient training.

All sides of politics have condemned the handling of the election. Newly re-elected Premier Roger Cook said it was “unacceptable” for some booths to run out of ballot papers, while Nationals leader Shane Love on Monday called for electoral commissioner Robert Kennedy to be suspended while a parliamentary inquiry investigates. The Climate 200-backed teal independent Kate Hulett – who looks highly likely to defeat Labor minister Simone McGurk in the seat of Fremantle – is seeking legal advice over issues identified during the election and the count. Mr Gorman on Tuesday added his voice to the line of WAEC critics, warning that the commission’s actions meant some seats might end up in the Court of Disputed Returns.

“The idea that people were waiting in a queue for two hours, completely unacceptable,” he said. “The idea that people were marked off the roll without being given a ballot paper, completely unacceptable.

“The idea that people rocked up to vote during the voting period and were told we’d run out of ballot papers, completely unacceptable.

“But what I’m also really concerned about is that some of the failures that we are hearing about, and we continue to hear day on day, some of these failures potentially see the Court of Disputed Returns having to sit where you have some very narrow contests, including in the upper house.

“That is never a position that you want to get to, where not because of the conduct of parties or candidates, but because of the failures of the Commission, that you might find yourself in court. That’s deeply concerning.”

Mr Gorman, who as a former party secretary had seen the inner workings of the WAEC up close, said he was shocked at how far the commission’s standards had fallen.

With West Australians no more than two months from voting in the federal election, Mr Gorman said it was important to remember that the WAEC and AEC were different entities.

“The Australian Electoral Commission is a completely separate federal agency, and well respected not just in Australia and not just by the states and territories,” he said.

“The Australian Electoral Commission is well respected internationally for the quality of their elections and the quality of their democratic work.”

Nine lower house seats are still yet to be decided more than three days since the election. The uncertainty has delayed decisions about the leadership of the WA Liberal Party given the uncertainty around just who will be in the party room.