The Australian Electoral Commission is expecting a higher than average turnout at today’s byelection, commission spokesman Evan Ekin-Smyth has said, as he warned results may be slowed down because of the large pool of candidates.
“The latest numbers that I’ve seen probably suggest that we’re going to end up above recent byelections like Cook and Aston and Dunkley. Somewhere, probably in the 85 to 90 per cent range in terms of final turnout, which is pretty good, but below the national turnout rate at the last election,” Ekin-Smyth told Sky News this evening.
Ekin-Smyth urged patience as the AEC sifts through a larger pool of candidates than the last election, and changes to preference flows from what the electorate has previously seen.
“Farrer in the 2025 federal election, last year, had nine candidates, and the average at the last federal election was between seven and eight per seat, and 12 clearly is more than that,” Ekin-Smyth said.
“When we’re counting the votes, there could be a lot of candidate appointed scrutineers at our count centres and polling places, for instance, that might slow things down a little bit,” he said.
“A hotly contested vote, as well, could mean that we obviously need to be patient for a result, and our motto is ‘always right, not rushed’. So we’ll see what happens tonight. But we urge people to be patient with us.”
