The Australian Electoral Commission says more than 5000 people have signed up to man polling booths on Saturday,amid concerns that people contracting COVID-19 could see some booths closed altogether.
CommissionerTom Rogerssaid that some areas where booths might have to have been closed would now be guaranteed to open on Saturday,but he could not rule out other closures.
“For those areas of concern,people are putting their hand up to help deliver democracy in their community,which is great,but we need more,” he said.
“The new registrations mean some of the locations we identified yesterday are no longer of critical concern but others are still falling short and,given the current environment,there could be new areas of concern arise,” he said.
“However,the impact will be limited. We will have the absolute vast majority of the 7000 polling places we operate across the nation on election day open and operating as per usual.”
As of Thursday afternoon,more than 4 million people had cast a pre-poll vote with a further 2.68 million applying for a postal vote before the deadline.
The AEC reiterated that people who test positive for COVID-19 from 6pm on Tuesday and are in isolation will be able to vote by telephone.
ReporterBillie Ederhas been speaking to some Australians who tested positive prior to Tuesday 6pm,failed to register for a postal vote in time and are horrified they won’t be able to have their say on Saturday.
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