Australian Electoral Commission confident election day in Western Australia will run smoothly

Australia Broadcast Center

22-04-2025

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has promised to avoid the mistakes that plagued WA's recent state election, assuring voters the federal poll will be a different story.
In a bid to restore the public confidence, the federal agency has emphasised its independence from the WA Electoral Commission.
The WAEC has been in the spotlight after long queues and low staff numbers at polling booths plagued the March 8 state election.
People vote in the WA election on March 8.
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ABC News: Andrew O'Connor
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The alleged mismanagement prompted the state government to launch a special inquiry, a decision backed by all major parties.
This inquiry will be tasked with assessing what went wrong, with the final report due by June 30.
WA Electoral Commissioner Robert Kennedy took leave while voting continued in the state election.
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ABC News: Ruby Littler
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There have been calls, primarily by Nationals Leader Shane Love, for WA Electoral Commissioner Robert Kennedy to step down. He is
Organisations independent
AEC Electoral Officer Anita Ratcliffe understands why some of the WA public would harbour concerns after their last experience at the polls.
But she wanted to stress the separation between the state and federal agency.
"I will acknowledge we're a very similar line of business ... (but) the WA Electoral Commission, they are a state agency," Ms Ratcliffe said.
Photo shows
People voting at Dalkeith pollling station.
Western Australia is in unchartered territory after the decision to hold a special inquiry into the management of the state election, writes Nicolas Perpitch.
"Their responsibility is the delivery of state elections as well as local government elections.
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We operate completely independently from (one) another.
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Ms Ratcliffe said the AEC "had a very good look" at what may have gone wrong at the state election and used it to inform their federal election management in WA.
"We've made sure we've checked our data and forecasting numbers against the voter turnout in certain locations to make sure that we've got that covered with queues," she said.
"Liaison officers will be rotating through locations to monitor queue lengths and ballot paper stock, with the ability to print on-demand if necessary."
Avoiding early voting hiccups
Record numbers of Western Australians are set to head the polls prior to election day on May 3, with early polling opening on Tuesday.
Ms Ratcliffe expects about half of West Australians will choose to vote early — a trend that's rising nationwide.
"I think early voting is becoming more popular because people are getting increasingly busy, and it's a good convenience option for people to be able to cast their vote early," she said.
Crowds headed to early polling booths across the state, with a large queue seen at Main Street in Osborne Park.
People queuing to vote early at an early polling centre in the Perth suburb of Osborne Park on Tuesday.
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Supplied: Sarah Knight
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And it's not just in-person voting that's seen an uptick in use.
"We've just ticked over 200,000 applications for postal votes," Ms Ratcliffe said.
"So that's just over 10 per cent of our total WA voter population, which is 1.9 million people."
Ms Ratcliffe said four-wheel drive and light plane crews have been deployed to provide early polling access to remote and indigenous communities in WA.
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