Page 55 - Conducting Elections during COVID-19

AUSTRALIA - QUEENSLAND 37

• ECQ will be employing additional staff ▪ Telephone voting registrations
to assist with managing queues and to start at 9am on Monday, 16
help people cast their vote in the most March 2020 and end at 12pm on
efficient manner. This includes Saturday, 28 March. Not
ensuring that high risk members of the everyone is eligible, so check
public, such as elderly people, receive first.
additional assistance.
▪ Voting remains compulsory in
• Crowd numbers in any polling booth at Queensland.
any one time will be monitored in
keeping with guidance and direction • There may be some impacts on
from relevant authorise, noting the remote council elections due to the
‘100 people’ trigger for mass National Cabinet’s decisions about
gatherings. travel to and from such communities.
These are being clarified as soon as
• Extra voting screens are being possible.
deployed to booths so voters can
move with minimal delays. • The experience of voting and
campaigning will be very different to
• Vote issuing tables and polling screens what people are used to.
will be positioned to maximise distance
• Vote counting and results declarations
between all people in attendance,
based on the space constraints of the may occur differently or take longer
polling booths than normal.
• Most other electoral arrangements
and milestones remain the same:

▪ Early voting centres and polling
booths are largely unchanged.
▪ Election day for all elections is
Saturday, 28 March 2020; booths
open from 8am-6pm.
▪ ECQ has extended voting hours
at most early voting centres
between 9am and 9pm on
Wednesday and Thursday this
week and next week, and on
Saturday 21 March between 9am
and 5pm.

▪ Postal voting applications closed
at 7pm, Monday 16 March 2020.
This deadline is set in accordance
with electoral legislation and
cannot be changed by ECQ.

If you need more information relating to the 2020 elections, please contact ECQ on 1300 881 665 or
by emailing ecq@ecq.qld.gov.au.