An external review of the 2024 local government elections has found the electoral commission “significantly miscalculated” voter turnout.
This resulted in ballot paper shortages and excessively long queues across Logan and left some residents unable to vote.
The report’s findings directly contradict the words of an Electoral Commission of Queensland spokesperson, who just days after the election told MyCity Logan the issues were “not out of the ordinary”.
The spokesperson said ballot boxes that ran out of papers were “quickly replenished” by ECQ officers.
“This is not an out of the ordinary occurrence, and electors who remained in those polling places received their ballot papers and were able to cast their votes,” they said.
“At the Eagleby polling booth, the returning officer has advised that any electors arriving after around 5.40pm were redirected to the nearby Cornubia polling booth.
“Queues on election day are not uncommon and while there were long queues in some places, in many others the wait time for electors was very short.”
But the review found 91 per cent of polling places across the state experienced turnouts that exceeded forecasts.
“Some saw turnout over 200 per cent – 300 per cent of forecasts,” the report said.
Electoral Commissioner Pat Vidgen said the report highlighted a range of findings, including the impact of forecasting data on service delivery and shifting voter behaviour.
“The delivery of electoral services relies on forecasting to determine when, where and how people are likely to vote during an election,” he said.
“For some time now, we’ve seen electors embracing early voting at elections in Queensland as a way of having their say at the time that suits them best – and this certainly accelerated during the pandemic.
“For these elections, we saw around 45 per cent of all votes cast on election day which was a significant departure from the 35 per cent turnout we had anticipated – a figure based on trend data and modelling of voter behaviour in recent elections, both here and in other states.
“We know this shift in voter behaviour placed additional pressure on our people and our resources on election day, particularly in more populous parts of Queensland – and subsequently impacted on the voting experience for some electors.”
Ultimately, the review determined it was “unlikely that the events of election day affected the results of the election to the extent that the incorrect candidate was declared elected”.
