Local shire councillor not allowed to vote

Newman resident Anita Grace is disappointed that she cannot vote today.

“I’ve got terminal cancer and I’m in a hospital in Perth. Brilliant hospital, by the way, it’s not their fault. They have strict policies regarding the covid outbreak in WA, Ms Grace said.

“My understanding is and every time I’ve been in hospital around voting they have someone come and you can vote. I would have applied for a postal vote if I had known that I’m not allowed to vote.

Ms Grace believed that she would be leaving the hospital today.

“I spoke with the hospital here and said I want to vote, ‘I want to have my say and I’m on local government and have had people vote for me so it’s very frustrating that I can’t vote for what I choose to. I rang the voting line and they said if you have got covid and can prove you have covid you can vote. The only other way is if you are legally blind.”

The hospital won’t let anyone out and I’m not going to buck the hospital’s policy by putting other people at risk. There are so many people in hospitals that can’t vote. What the hell is going on it should have been something that was planned a long time ago.”

Ms Grace has contacted Peter Foster. Member for Mining and Pastoral and the electoral roll.

“ I’ve rung the electoral roll and they can’t do anything for me. Why can’t they drop postal votes into the hospital now, give it to us and have the nurses bring them around to all our wards.”

The AEC responded promptly but did ot address our questions about patients in hospital.

The AEC announced on the night before election day that the 76 regional polling places identified as being in danger of not opening due to staff shortages had all obtained the required staff.

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said the effort over the past few days to reach this position has been mammoth.

“If election day begun at 7pm tonight every single one of the 7,000 polling places we’ve planned for would open its doors, Mr Rogers said”

“We cannot thank people enough – our colleagues across government and the community have stepped up to lend and a hand, and Australians have stepped forward for democracy.”

“While this is extraordinary, it is a pandemic election.”

“Our 105,000 workforce across Australia has had approximately 15 per cent turnover in the past week alone and this risk will continue tomorrow morning.”

“If some of the small number of people we’ve lined up to work at a local voting centre withdraw on the morning of the election, we may not have back ups available in that town.”

“For 105,000 positions we’ve had more than 280,000 registrations of interest but it’s not evenly spread across the country.”

“To those people working for us tomorrow, thank you for putting your hand up. Please, unless you wake up COVID+, come in to work to make sure that your polling place can open.

“To voters, if there is a queue remember to treat our staff with kindness. You wouldn’t have a local polling place with them.”