$300m bill for federal poll

THE 2019 federal election will cost about $300 million but the man in charge says it is good value for money.

Before voter enrolments closed last night, electoral commissioner Tom Rogers said he expected there to be almost 16.4 million people on the roll for the May 18 election.

It worked out to be about $18 per voter, Mr Rogers said, which was good value given that voters were offered a wide range of ways to cast their ballot and the election would involve 80,000 polling officials and other staff stationed across the world.

“This will be the largest election in Australia’s history,” he said yesterday. “It’s like setting up a Fortune 500 company with about four weeks’ notice and then dismantling it two days after the event.”

Almost one in three voters is expected to cast their ballots early, with the pre-poll/postal vote rate rising from 13 per cent 12 years ago to 31 per cent at the last election.

Extra security measures have been put in place with a taskforce involving federal police, ASIO and cyber experts keeping watch on foreign hackers or other interference.

The measures were trialled at the Super Saturday byelections and the NSW state election.

As well, Facebook, Twitter and other online giants are working with the Australian Electoral Commission to quickly take down disinformation. The AEC has received 15 formal complaints regarding social media postings so far in the federal election campaign, which started last week.

Three warnings have been sent to people over Facebook pages while four requests had been made to Facebook to remove content.

The AEC is also working with Deakin University on methods to reduce queues on polling day, including more booths and mini-queues within polling stations.

Candidate nominations are due by Tuesday with early voting starting on April 29.