SCENIC Rim voters were unable to access preliminary results of yesterday's council election due to a technical glitch in the Electoral Commission's data feed systems.
The ECQ said the preliminary count was conducted in the local government elections as scheduled following the close of polling on election day, 28 March 2020.
Due to a technical issue with the data feed from polling booths to the ECQ's results website, the publication of the preliminary count results was delayed.
They said the glitch did not affect the count process itself or the recording of results from over 1,000 polling booths around the state and all results from the preliminary count were published on the ECQ website by 11.45pm.
"To ensure transparency of the counting process while the publication of results was delayed, the ECQ contacted all candidates and political parties to advise that they would be admitted to polling booths to scrutinise the voting process," they said.
"This followed the issuing of a direction to prohibit scrutineers from the preliminary count due to social distancing measures required to minimise health risks of COVID-19.
"All candidates and political parties were kept informed throughout the preliminary count process, including notification of the publication of full results."
A spokeswoman said under legislation, the counting of votes would be undertaken in a number of stages:
- The preliminary count, conducted following the close of polls is an unofficial count of results undertaken at a polling booth level. Not all votes, such as postal votes and most of the votes cast during the early voting period, are counted during the preliminary count.
- The official count commences from Sunday (commencement times vary depending on individual locations) under the supervision of the relevant Returning Officer. The preliminary count is always counted again as part of the official count and declaration and postal vote scrutiny commences.
Depending on the number and composition of votes cast in an election, the official count process could take up to two weeks. The large number of postal votes sent in the local government elections (approximately 570,000) and new social distancing measures to be applied during the scrutineering process were expected to extend the counting process.
ECQ said the official count would proceed as planned from 9am Sunday and results would be published to the ECQ website.
