South Australia lacked polling-station staff before election
In South Australia, Electoral Commission staff were still searching for polling-place managers just hours before voting on March 21, 2026. Internal emails and Teams messages obtained by ABC News Australia through a freedom-of-information request indicate significant pressure on staff ahead of the election.
In one email, an employee responsible for conducting the election in a district in Adelaide's western suburbs said that fewer than half of the polling-place manager positions had been filled. He asked for an experienced worker who could start without training to be urgently assigned and said that he was literally begging for a response to the request.
Unfilled positions ahead of voting
On the evening before election day, the same employee reported that one polling place had no manager, no deputy manager and had not been prepared for operation. He also complained about chaotic staff allocation: according to him, the previous day he spent two hours pairing experienced and inexperienced workers, and in the morning he began the day in tears at 4 a.m.
In another email sent 48 hours before polling places opened, an official asked for help, having only two appointed workers for a combined polling place. In the Stuart district, the state's largest regional district, four polling places in Woomera, Booleroo, Jamestown and Leigh Creek remained without staff three days before the election.
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On the eve of voting, election managers in the Lee, Morphett and Stuart districts received staff lists. A message for Stuart, received almost at 8 p.m., said that the commission was reviewing polling-place staffing needs because of reduced activity. Officials were also told that polling places would not be closed without separate authorization from the commissioner, although some vacancies remained unfilled.
Problems on election day
On voting day, the Electoral Commission of South Australia organized nearly 700 polling places and advertised 8,000 staff positions. After polling places opened at 8 a.m., some were closed because of technical malfunctions, while others did not operate at all.
At one polling place in Adelaide's western suburbs, only one person had been trained to handle declaration ballots cast by voters outside their electoral district. A post-election internal note stated that this employee was conducting the vote count because the polling-place manager had been appointed only a few hours before opening. The author of the note said the polling place should not have opened.
The conduct of the election is already being examined by an independent external review led by former Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers. He described the documents obtained by ABC as painful reading and said the review was examining staffing, pay and the organization of voting. Acting South Australian Electoral Commissioner Leah McLeay said she was extremely concerned by reports of stress among staff.
