Chapter 7 - Election costs

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The actual expenditure incurred for the conduct of the election is estimated at $27.432 million for the period to June 2023.

Most of the cost ($26.423 million) was spent in the 2021–22 financial year. Preliminary expenditure of $460,000 in 2020–21 is related to the implementation of the online employment portal, training materials and implementation of the learning management system, project management, and facility preparation. A further $549,000 was spent on post-election activities in 2022–23, primarily on non-voter communications and follow-up and the receipt, sorting, storage, and disposal of election materials.

In Chapter 7 - Election costs...

Comparison with budget

Comparison with 2018 State Election costs

Comparison with budget

The budget allocation from the Department of Treasury and Finance (Treasury) for the state election was $22.926 million in total, represented by $778,000 in 2020–21 for preliminary activities, $21.759 million in 2021–22, and $389,000 in 2022–23 for post-election activities. This allocation was determined based on the same activities and volumes as the 2018 election, plus inflationary growth in costs and increases in volumes over the 4 years between elections, expected changes in conditions (such as more demand for early voting options), and modernisation improvements approved by the government.

Further budget allocations totalling $2.346 million were provided by Treasury during the 2021–22 financial year for the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the conduct of the election.

The total budget allocation from Treasury amounted to $25.272 million.

Total actual expenditure was $2.160 million greater than the total budget allocation, primarily due to:

Further specific COVID-related costs for additional casual staff, materials, and system changes (such as including vaccine status in the employment portal for all election staff)

Significantly more hours worked than forecast by polling booth and EVC staff, returning officers, and subsequent count teams

ICT rollout costs for EMO

Increased transport costs reflecting generally higher rates during the pandemic

Additional costs for scanning Legislative Council ballot papers

Higher volume of non-voters than expected.

It is not possible to determine the extent to which the additional hours worked and other costs were caused by the COVID-19 conditions or other factors, such as the changes in early voting volumes and timing of attendance at polling booths.

These additional costs were partly offset by lower mobile polling costs due to the cancellation of electoral visitors to declared institutions such as nursing homes.

The adverse variation was funded by agency cash reserves.

ECSA also received an investing expenditure allocation from Treasury of $3.115 million for state election-related capital expenditure projects, predominantly the creation of EMO. This replaced paper electoral rolls, although paper rolls were still available in all polling booths as a backup.

Total project expenditure is estimated at $3.205 million for the period to June 2023, which is $90,000 more than the budget allocation. The additional expenditure is mainly due to purchasing extra laptops to ensure coverage at all polling locations.

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Comparison with 2018 State Election costs

The total actual expenditure of $27.432 million for the election compares with $16.728 million for the 2018 election.

The increase of $10.704 million relates to:

Unavoidable cost pressures:

A 5.4% increase in the number of electors

Compound annual inflationary growth of 1.5% to 2.5% resulting in a 10% increase in costs over 4 years

Increases in costs in excess of inflation, including: Postage paid to Australia Post, Short-term rents paid for early voting, venues and ROs’ premises, Materials costs for printing ballot papers, cardboard, and polling booth kits, and Transport costs for all materials

Expected increases in elector demand for early voting options and higher demands on telephone enquiry services.

Changes in conditions:

The COVID-19 pandemic was the single largest change in conditions from the 2018 election. Other changes include:

Implementation of an end-to-end online employment portal for recruitment, engagement, recording, and payment for over 6,000 casual employees

Development of in-person and online training content and installation of a learning management system for distribution to casual staff and monitoring completion

Providing electronic roll mark-off for all electors upon entering a polling place

Securing additional internal resources to: Enhance engagement with First Nations, electors to continue to increase participation, Increase quality assurance over ballot, paper printing and other critical election, materials and postal activities, Modernise project management documentation and monitoring, and Organise and supervise processing centre activities covering postal voting applications, re-issues and materials

Higher volumes and costs required for early voting and polling booth activities, ROs’ duties, Legislative Council ballot paper scanning, and subsequent scrutiny and count requirements

Increased volume of non-voters.

There were 1,266,719 electors on the roll for the state election compared with 1,201,775 for the 2018 election – an increase of 64,944 electors or 5.4%.

Cost per elector

Cost per elector has risen to $21.66 from $13.92 in 2018. The increase is due to unavoidable cost pressures and changes in conditions over the 4 years between elections. The cost per elector reduces to $19.41 after excluding direct COVID-19 costs.

FAST FACT

Comparison of costs for the 2022 and 2018 state elections:

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