AEC advise potential reduction in polling booths for Flynn and Capricornia as Central Queenslanders urged to help

Polling booth staff shortages in central and north Queensland have forced the AEC to advise not all previous booths will be open on election day this Saturday. Here’s what we know.

A staff shortage in the crucial seats of Flynn and Capricornia may lead to a slight reduction in polling booths for Central Queenslanders on Saturday, as the AEC makes a last ditch recruiting effort.

The key central and north Queensland electorates of Flynn, Capricornia, Leichardt (Far North), and Kennedy (Mt Isa) are the four electorates in the Sunshine State the AEC believe will have a reduced number of polling stations on election day this Saturday.

It is understood the Capella and Rolleston booths are among those impacted.

The Observer will publish on Friday evening every polling booth location for Flynn voters.

The four electorates are among only eight identified nationally where the AEC is giving early notice to voters to double-check where they can vote this weekend.

The AEC have reported that six million Australians have already voted at pre-polling booths such as Gladstone’s booth located on Beckinsale St. Picture: Nilsson Jones

The AEC has reassured Australians that the vast majority of the nation’s planned 7,000 polling places will be in operation.

Electoral commissioner Tom Rogers said while the impact would be limited and isolated, voters in regional locations who had not accessed early or postal voting may not have a polling venue in the hometown on May 21.

“Recruitment difficulty is exactly what we advised could occur, both earlier in the pandemic and in the early stages of the election period, and why we’ve been urging people to assess all voting options,” Mr Rogers said.

For the past 12 months, the AEC has used a number of methods to recruit the 105,000 polling staff required across Australia including direct liaison, advertising and third-party outreach.

Six million Australians have now pre-polled or submitted their postal votes, such as Tilly Birch of Jindalee who voted with her 10 year old Cattle dog, Mog. Picture Lachie Millard

Estimates suggest the AEC has made well over 1m phone calls, sent more than 500k emails and had 1.8 millions unique page views on our election jobs web pages since February.

“Short of handing out blank cheques for work, or accommodating thousands of single-day workers in interstate locations, there is not much more we could have done so far,” he said.

“For some people it may mean that if you want to vote at a polling place in your town on election day, you may have to sign up to work as well.”

The AEC is now engaging in a final push to recruit staff for the regional areas and exploring staffing models including amalgamating venues.

You can sign up here to help the AEC and your local community working in one of the thousands of temporary election jobs.

Originally published as AEC advise potential reduction in polling booths for Flynn and Capricornia as Central Queenslanders urged to help