‘Election day fail’: Long queues at polling booths in inner Melbourne

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Voters at polling stations in inner Melbourne have complained of lengthy waits of up to two hours to cast their ballot, prompting the city’s lord mayor to call for a “root and branch” review.

At polling centres in South Yarra, Southbank, Docklands, North Melbourne and Richmond on Saturday, voters told The Age they had waited between 45 minutes and two hours in queues that snaked through school and church grounds or along residential streets.

A queue of voters at North Melbourne Primary School just after 10am on Saturday.Credit: Sophie Aubrey

The Australian Electoral Commission has denied waits reached as long as two hours, but the issues prompted Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece to lash the commission for “an election day fail we could all see coming” following similar problems during the 2022 federal election and the 2023 Voice referendum.

While some voters were easygoing about extensive waits, others voiced frustrations about poor queue management and a lack of inner-city pre-polling options that could have reduced pressures on Saturday. Some voters gave up and turned around when they saw the lines.

In South Yarra, in the seat of Melbourne, Rachel Kennedy said she found two-hour queues at Christ Church Grammar School and at her local library before she walked to St Martins Hall. There, around lunchtime, the wait to vote was between 60 and 90 minutes.

Voter Rachel Kennedy in South Yarra in the seat of Melbourne. Credit: Sophie Aubrey

Kennedy felt the queues were particularly bad because not enough pre-polling booths were set up nearby.

“We were eligible for pre-poll, but we couldn’t because it was nowhere near where we lived,” she said. “It was only in St Kilda. Another one was in Kew ... It’s been pretty bad.”

Jessica Broadbent waited for an hour from 10am to cast her vote at North Melbourne Primary School and was disappointed to see an electoral officer come around only once, seeking voters who could be fast-tracked.

Broadbent said people with specific needs, such as older voters or hospital workers, should be regularly ushered through.

Simon Heaysman at North Melbourne Primary School.Credit: Sophie Aubrey

“We should make it easy for people … to participate in democracy,” she said. “Why is there not even one person in a fluoro vest with a loud voice and cheerful smile staying out here doing any kind of queue management?”

At the same polling booth, Simon Heaysman was relishing the election atmosphere given he often has to vote early due to work.

“I wanted the full election experience, the sausages, the cupcakes, the line,” he said.

Early on Saturday, voters arriving at Docklands’ only polling booth, at The District shopping centre, were told they would have to stand in line for at least 90 minutes.

Older voters and people with access issues were whisked to the front.

Some voters told The Age they wouldn’t bother lining up at Docklands and would “vote in the suburbs” later in the day.

By 2pm, those at the front of the queue at Docklands said the wait had eased to just 20 minutes.

At the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in Southbank, in the seat of Macnamara, the queue to vote was snaking around the block in the early afternoon. Voters said they were told it could be up to a two-hour wait.

A trio close to the front of the line said they had been waiting for about 75 minutes.

“Some drinks would be nice … or a hat for me to put on,” said one man, motioning to his empty drink bottle and bare bald head.

Age readers in Prahran, Fitzroy and Kooyong also shared experiences of waiting close to two hours and minimal resourcing at polling stations.

Reece said inner-city waiting times were “not good enough” and it wasn’t unreasonable for people to be in and out of a polling booth in 20 minutes.

“I’m calling for a root and branch review of how this poll has been conducted in Melbourne,” the lord mayor said.

“In a country where we have compulsory voting, there is an obligation on electoral authorities to make voting as easy as possible.”

Access to pre-polling in and near the Melbourne CBD was a hot topic in the final days of the election campaign.

Reece called the lack of pre-polling venues in the city centre baffling and undemocratic. The AEC later accused the City of Melbourne of failing to help the commission secure suitable venues.

On Saturday, Reece said: “I’m not interested in the blame game, I’m interested in finding solutions. The City of Melbourne is happy to work with the AEC to ensure this never happens again.

“They managed to find a pre-polling booth in every CBD in the country. The voting infrastructure in inner-city Melbourne is failing the voters and our democracy.”

People queue to vote in Docklands.Credit: Jason South

AEC spokesman Evan Ekin-Smyth denied waiting times on Saturday had hit two hours and suggested the reported figures from voters were inadvertently inflated.

He said the lines at each booth were checked regularly and data being fed into the commission’s command centre showed queues were, at worst, about 80 minutes.

“The absolute vast majority of the 7000 [national] polling places on offer are seeing very reasonable wait times, if any at all,” he said.

Ekin-Smyth said that when waits reached about 30 minutes, officers looked at adding new ballot-issuing points or redeploying staff from other stations. For example, additional workers were sent to Docklands.

He said extra election day venues were added to the CBD following the 2023 Voice referendum.

“Whenever you have a process that gives 18 million-plus people the choice of when and where to turn up, there will be some queues. You simply cannot avoid that,” Ekin-Smyth said.

“There is no election in the world without queues. It’s part of any in-person, large-scale process. We’re better than most and do everything possible to minimise them.”

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