Saturday 18th May 2019 Election Day - 7.30 am offical start time at Mil Hill Bondi Junction 11.45 pm official finishing time at Mill Hill Bondi Junction. It has been a very long day - we weren't as busy at this polling place as at previous Federal Elections here therefore I can't understand why we finished so late and were 300 counts out during count reconciliation after voting closed at 6 pm. The declaration votes reconciled but the ordinary votes didn't.
The scrutinerrs were present to watch our counting procedures as well as the Polling Place Liason Officer (PPLO) who looks after the Polling places in the area.
As per my previous blogs on working as a DVIO at an election, I wait until after an election day before blogging about the good bad and the ugly about an election day which is basically my analysis of an election so my employment is not terminated.
So what did I think was good about this Federal Election? Well not much actually - The Liberals won & Labor lost - Scomo gets to live for a another 3 - 4 years ( I give him another year before he is KOed!). But seriously getting to work with a great team of other DVIOs and a OIC that I have worked with at previous elections again. It was good to work with experienced people although there were 2 people I hope never to work with again!
The declaration voting area and ordinary voting areas at Mill Hill were separated and laid out very well and there was easy access for walkers prams wheel chairs even kids and dogs without obstructions. Since most people had prevoted or postal voted this polling place was steady in the flow of voters and there were not the usual long queues stretching around the corner down the street.
Now the bad - why was there an equal amounts of DVIOs to EO's allocated to Mill Hill? If the AEC knew that a large portion of voters had already voted via a prevote or postal vote and stats from the previous Wentworth By Election showed The Church In The Marketplace North Bondi just around the corner ( where Michael & I were stationed at the Wentworth By Election in November 2018) was much busier then Mill Hill surely the maximum amount of DVIOs allocated to Mill Hill would have been 4 as per previous Federal Elections. We ended up with about 8! There were only 4 desks set up for DVIOs therefore these 4 were already taken for those who arrived first. We decided that it was a good idea to have a fifth DVIO on standby as a runner and back up to, for example, get additional allocations of ballot papers from the OIC who was stationed at the other end of the hall as we can ran out of each allocation of them which did happen throughout the day and also to get stationery and as a cross checker/counter. The remaining 3 DVIOs ended up being allocated to other duties such as crowd/queue control and ballot box guard or just wondering around as an information officer. At least they still got paid the same rate as a DVIO. We did rotate our positions as we took breaks giving other DVIOs a chance to perform DVIOs duties. By lunch time we lost the first of our DVIOs who was our runner and relief DVIO to The Church In The Marketplace. The OIC Nick received a phone call requesting assistance from that polling place and to send one of our DVIOs there to assist. Initially I suggested James however I think the OIC could see that he was an unsuitable choice ( more about James later). By late afternoon we lost our second DVIO Michael who was performing crowd/queue control all day - I asked him if he wanted to relieve me and perform some declaration vote processing duties but he was happy with crowd/queue control duties. I had requested to the OIC for Michael to assist me after polling closed at 6 pm for the declaration votes count but decided we could manage without him as we had a strong enough DVIO team and allowed him to go and assist The Church In The Marketplace when requested. I hope I didn't send him to hell by doing so as it sounded as if The Church In The Marketplace was desperately in trouble and needed someone experienced to assist them according to the OIC. I have worked with Michael at quite a few elections previously at Mill Hill and we were allocated as DVIOs together at The Church In The Marketplace last Wentworth By Elections therefore I knew how frantic it can become over there - we were sending voters ourselves to Mill Hill during that By Election We have both worked with Nick the Officer In Charge (OIC) and I introduced Michael to Scott one of the other DVIOs but I was sure they already knew each other from working at previous elections.
Mill Hill wasn't even busy with voters - the lines were steady and absent at times except when voters were again being sent from The Church In The Marketplace to us. Yep that meant there was a slight queue poroblem there yet again - either that or they had run out of certain ballot papers again!
I mentioned another one of our DVIOs James - I am unsure whether he was actually a DVIO as there were not enough DVIO vests and tags to go around therefore he was given 2 different tags but advised not to wear one of them by the 2IC- he was told by the 2IC to do other things which he wasn't suppose to do during the night as well. I had to watch James at my dec issuing point ie dec issue point #2 like a hawk as he issued declaration votes. He ended up as our DVIO at dec issue point #1 somehow and put our entire DVIO teams reconciliation count out. I caught him leaving off the division number on someone's declaration vote but caught it in time to amend and he was confusing spoilt and discarded envelopes and incorrectly writing divisions on declaration envelopes. He said he was told by the OIC to put discarded votes into spoilt envelopes which is correct but you don't include them in the count as they have already been counted elsewhere. He was also the last DVIO to tally up their reconciliation sheet to be cross checked before adding the figures onto the main reconciliation sheet. Thank goodness for Scott the DVIO who used the tree method instead of a calculator to add up his figures - he was the only one who could figure out what James had done (wrong) - ( I used the tree method in previous elections as well but his was more sophisticated as he actually drew branches - typical engineers and scientists think like!)
Let's now talk about the 2IC Elizabeth I think her name was - don't follow any of her instructions or ask or accept any of her answers - totally incorrect information given out. I have worked with her before - not very helpful. I am unsure how she became a 2IC.
Moral of my above comments - yes I have mentioned previously that everyone should work at an election at least once in their lifetime - people think it is a volunteer job and not a paid job but it is. However it is below the minimum wage if you don't mind that ( depends on the size of the polling place though - let me explain it is a "fixed" wage paid therefore if you are unfortunate to work at a very large polling place or a very busy polling place as examples, it is very likely it will take a lot longer to sort and count the votes after 6 pm therefore your hourly rate of pay decreases the more hours you have to stay to complete the sort count reconciliation and packing of votes - if you have to work beyond 10.30 pm you will definitely be paid below the calculated minimum wage!). Therefore it is more about the experience then anything else. What I hate about working at an election is some of your work collegues are not trained or are unsuitable for positions they have been employed to do as per above - sometimes this is due to shortage of people in certain areas available to work at polling places around Australia or interested in working at an election eg away remoteness skill shortage or set wage . My complaint, and I asked if any of my fellow DVIOs had done the same thing, was we all put our expressions of interests down election after election for other election work but have never been successful in gaining any except for our DVIO positions on election day. I would like to gain a more all rounded experience of the elections. The OIC did mention I inquired about the above that a lot of the work is subcontracted out and located somewhere in the middle of nowhere which maybe the reason we never gain any other election work (it would have to be - secret voting business).
And more bad - no democracy sausages! Being a community centre at Mill Hill and not a school there was no sausage sizzle which my fellow DVIOs and I were all looking forward to. The canteen wasn't even open this election. There was no democracy sausage sizzle at the Church In The Martketplace either. Bummer particularly when I tried to look it up on the democracy sausage location map! A voter mention when they were driving around how many polling places there actually were around Bondi - maybe I should have asked them where the nearest polling place with democracy sausages was located - I suggested as a joke to my fellow DVIOs sending for an Uber Eats to pick a batch up for us!
And more bad- stationery - yep we needed more Sydney Wentworth and Kingsford Smith ballot papers but didn't run out this election we just had to 'share' the 2 pads of Kingsford Smith and Sydney ballot papers by allocating 2 DVIOs to Kingsford Smith and 2 DVIOs to Sydney and send voters to the appropriate dec issuing points. We survived - I had the extra allocation of Wentworth ballot papers for locals whose names did not appear on the ordinary voteing roll ( and silent voters in the Wentworth division) however it only came in a pad of 100! By the way we needed more pens and 3 voting booths were unused because they didn't have enough pencils to attach to them! I provided my own rubber bands for the bundling of dec envelopes and why was the kitchen used to store the check list and other important stuff we actually needed to know but was not allocated to us! I needed the 'excuses for not voting' book but was not given one ( I had to find one) and we ran out of enrolment/ update details forms completely which always happens EVERY election. At least this election I didn't get many "My name does not appear on the election roll" complaints as at previous elections!
In the end the PPLO assisted me finding misding stuff as the OIC had his hands full with trying to reconcile the ordinary votes which was way out even with Scott's tree method assistance. I was not involved in the ordinary votes count this year as I was put in charge of orgainising the Dec votes counting sorting and packing. We balanced they didn't - that is why we did not finish until 11.45 pm when we should have finished by 10.45 pm at the latest!
As a result I had to book an extra night stay in an 8 share female carriage dorm at Railway Square that night after I finished the dec votes count. My roommate who also worked at the election but at a Surry Hills polling place as an ordinary voting officer was fast asleep by the time I arrived back at the dorm. The following day I found out she finished at 10.45 pm. We weren't busy at Mill Hill therefore should have finished by 10.30 pm! I walked past The Church In The Marketplace on my way to Bondi Junction Station and they were still counting at 11.45 pm that night - poor Michael maybe I did send him to hell- oh well I won't find out until I work with him again ( if there is a next time) in another 4 years time!
Let's talk about the State Election last March and what I found out from fellow DVIOs at this Federal Election, the reason why some of us DVIOs did not end up at Mill Hill again or at any other polling place in Bondi Junction was because we allocated the wrong division to work at for the State Election - I thought Mill Hill was Sydney then realised it maybe Vaucluse but it actually was Coogee because the boundaries had changed therefore I ended up at St George's Church Hall Glenmore Rd Paddington! What The?!?!
Scott went home for lunch during the Federal Election as he lives around the corner from Mill Hill. Michael did the same for the Wentworth By Election. Scott mentioned to me that he would not be surprise he was Michael's neighbour! Everyone that works at Mill Hill grew up or lives in the Eastern suburbs it seems - I did! ( even going to the same schools)
Summary
- to Nick the OIC "See you in another 4 years!" (maybe?again!)
- from my fellow election collegues at Mill Hill when they asked me how much my extra night stay at Railway Square YHA in an 8 share female carriage dorm was "that's almost equivalent to the meal allowance we received" ( yep there goes my meal allowance as well as the minimum wage - thanks for finishing so late!)
- attendance of face to face training session some of my fellow DVIOs thought their training session was great others agreed with me that it was pretty bad and a waste of time.
- voting should not be compulsory and everyone should do a postal vote or pre vote, better still computerised the entire election - a reminder that voting over the age of 18 is compulsory
- there is something about privacy issues that still need to be addressed - I don't thi k the AEC knows what a silent vote actually means and as for postal votes the envelopes to be returned still have all your personal details exposed on the back of the envelope - I bought this up last election and still nothing has been done about this. If you want to be sure your personal information is kept safe lodging a postal vote - cross out your contact details completely with a black marker before returning it to the AEC, write silent voter on it and write no witnesses around to sign at the bottom of the envelope - this is what I do every time I lodge a postal vote. I don't want Australia Post or anyone else that handles my postal vote stealing my personal information. After all isn't voting meant to be private?
- don't recruit people unsuitable for positions
- review the entire election process from how to vote, duties, procedures, resources, work hours and wages, training both online and face to face, recruitment, allocation of staff and numbers, skills, number of polling places for each division etc etc ...to make the elections more sustainable, accurate fair and efficient!
- most important pre and post election feedback feedback feed back and action!!!! It is not good enough to select the first 25 employees from hundreds of thousands of employees around Australia to attend 2 x 2 hour workshops for a feedback session during a weekday who respond to an email invitation run by a third party company - that is just wrong and a total waste of money!!
Finally - if I had a party I would call it the
" Make Voting Non Compulsory" party or the " Make Voting Computerised" party ( Spoken by Dulcinea for the Dulcineasdiarycontinued has spoken party)
I add a disclaimer to what I have just written on this blog
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