An election ‘SH*T Show’ has fueled calls for several studies

We are lucky to live in a country where elections are rarely or never described as a “shit show”.

It makes it all the more surprising if something goes wrong, as they seem to have when West -Australians went to the poll last weekend.

Talkback radio is filled with complaints, just like the inbox of National Leader Shane Love, he said.

“It is even too full and now bounces back complaints from people who have been detached, people who have worked in the system for years, worked in many elections, who have never seen such a bad run election,” Mr Love told reporters on Wednesday.

“We see employees who have been housed or under trained and vocal cords where people have been rejected because there were simply not enough ballot papers at the vocal cords.

“This is an absolute shit show.

These issues are on every election, but with eight seats that are still too close to call, problems that raise questions about the legitimacy of the end result, to say the least, are problematic.

Even politicians were not spared problems, as the first Labor Labor MP Kate Doust discovered.

‘They couldn’t find me on the [electoral] Roll, “she told ABC Radio Perth.

“And I actually pointed to the ballot and said,” I am, I am on the ballot, that’s why I have to be registered “.”

But try to work out exactly what went wrong and why is much more difficult than identifying the problems.

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The core of the issues, according to Love, is the decision of the WA election committee to outsource the workforce of the elections to a private company, Persolkelly.

In the days after the elections, information from the WA government, the electoral committee and the company that was involved about the scheme was difficult to find.

Almost a week after the poll, it is the WA election committee firmly in the hot chair.

“No minister received a briefing on the Commission’s decision to involve a private contractor to provide temporary election work,” said a government spokesperson on Friday afternoon.

“The WAEC has advised that it has not stated the Minister of Election Affairs [the retiring John Quigley] About the involvement of Persolkelly to guarantee the integrity of the purchasing process and to prevent the appearance of the government in the selection of the successful tenderer. “

Although it seems that there was no legal obligation for the committee to advise the government of its plans, many would wonder why it was not informed of the change.

Persolkelly claimed that “earlier state and federal election committees have appointed recruitment companies to deliver staff in the same way”.

The committee acknowledged that it had previously used recruitment companies, but in a different way.

“In 2021 a contractor was called in for offering recruitment services for the WAEC processing center and the early staff of the polling,” said a spokesperson.

That is a much smaller part of the workforce than what Persolkelly delivered this time, including the Polling Place staff on election day.

Staff numbers in the spotlight

The number of hired staff was another potential bottleneck, where Persolkelly placed the figure at 7,000.

“The WAEC determines all personnel requirements,” the company said.

The committee said that its contractor has given the staff that it “in accordance with the requirements of the project”.

The obvious question is whether the committee has asked for sufficient staff.

Another question is how good that staff is trained.

“The training was particularly bad and insufficient,” was the position of Shane Love.

“I feel for people who tried to express their democratic mood in the elections, then rejected, or were misled in marking their mood because they were wrongly informed on the cabin about how to do it.”

Persolkelly said that his role was simple “the specialized training modules distributed by the WAEC”.

The committee said that the mix of training, including online and face-to-face was “consistent with the approach used in earlier elections”.

“The WAEC gave more face-to-face training in 2025,” said a spokesperson.

The quality of that training will be another important problem for every study to consider.

So also, former liberal leader Zak Kirkup believes, is the means of the WAEC.

“[The WAEC] Never become resources to what they actually ask for, even though there is more pressure about the safety and integrity of our elections, “he wrote on social media.

Premier wants independent probe

The problem for all involved is that there are currently many more questions than there are satisfactory answers.

It is not helped by Robert Kennedy, the election commissioner, who refuses to talk to the media until after counting is completed, and says this is his focus.

The committee has promised a “full investigation” into the behavior of the elections.

“This investigation will start after the latest explanation of the results for these elections,” said a spokesperson on Sunday.

Prime Minister Roger Cook seems to want to go one step further when the time is ripe.

“The priority at the moment is that the count is complete,” he said during the week.

“The state government will establish an independent investigation at a suitable moment.”

Mr Love wants to go one step further and see a parliamentary investigation – which can call witnesses – investigates what went wrong.

He has also asked the Corruption and Crime Commission to investigate the processes surrounding the contract.

What form the investigation, or research, also, they will be crucial for rebuilding trust in the State election process that took mistreatment last week.

View our 2025 WA State elections page For all coverage of the ABC.

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