Arabic version: مسؤولون سابقون في مراكز الاقتراع يشيرون إلى طلبات عمل بلا رد في انتخابات جنوب أستراليا

According to ABC News, several former polling officials say the South Australian Electoral Commission did not follow up after they offered to work at the March 2026 state election. Their accounts emerged after reports that the commission was seeking people to manage polling booths only hours before election day.

More than half a dozen people contacted ABC News after its earlier report on the election’s staffing problems. Several said they had election experience, had indicated they were willing to work anywhere, and received no further contact from ECSA despite booths being understaffed.

Retired Australian Defence Force member Crispin Boxhall said his online application, made after ECSA approached him, was accepted three months before the poll. He had previously worked at three elections, including as a polling booth manager at the 2025 federal election in the Adelaide Hills. Boxhall said he contacted ECSA a month before the state election and again about two weeks before it, but had no communication before or after polling day.

Semi-retired consultant Andrew West, who worked for the Australian Electoral Commission during the 2023 Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, said he had indicated he would be happy to work at an SA election. He said he would have travelled anywhere and was surprised nobody contacted him when staffing issues arose.

ECSA’s handling of the March 21 election is being independently reviewed by former Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers. The review is examining technical glitches, long queues, missing ballots, payment delays and Aboriginal voters mistakenly turned away in the First Nations Voice election. Premier Peter Malinauskas said the report is expected within two months. Acting electoral commissioner Leah McLay said ECSA was concerned about recruitment and training issues and would consider recommendations for future elections.