The Electoral Commission of Queensland says lengthy delays and ballot paper shortages at last month’s Logan City Council elections were not out of the ordinary.
An ECQ spokesperson said ballot boxes which ran out of papers were “quickly replenished by our team of returning 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.
“We have received no reports of electors being turned away from a polling booth if they arrived before 6pm.
“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.”
The ECQ spokesperson said they expected queues in some places on March 6.
“Queues on election day are not uncommon,” they said.
“And while there were long queues in some places, in many others the wait time for electors was very short. ”
Any challenges to the outcome of elections would be heard by the Court of Disputed Returns.
Any applications needed to be lodged within seven days of the conclusion of the relevant local government’s election.
“As we do following any election event, we will evaluate how this event has been delivered and make any required adjustments,” the ECQ spokesperson said.
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