8 October 2004

Early this evening the Governor General issued a proclamation enabling certain Queensland electors to receive ballot papers from the Australian Electoral Commission and complete and return them anytime from today until 22 October 2004. This special proclamation is enabled under section 285 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

The AEC has issued a record number of more than 750,000 postal votes over the course of the election period and large numbers of ballot papers have already been completed and returned. However the AEC has also been investigating concerns raised by some electors that postal voting materials have not been received.

Last night the AEC’s contractor for postal vote production and distribution identified that 1,832 of the 750,000 postal voting materials had been spoilt during the production process, and these 1,832 electors had not received voting materials. It was established that all electors who had not been posted materials were General Postal Voters from Queensland. Overnight the AEC identified all the electors concerned.

Further investigation showed 473 Queenslanders had already been re-issued with postal voting materials through earlier contact with the AEC.

The remaining 1,359 electors are mostly located in the divisions of Capricornia (100), Kennedy (191) and Maranoa (583) with the remainder distributed across Queensland divisions in small numbers. The AEC is attempting to urgently contact these electors to ensure that they are able to vote in the federal election.

See attached Table for breakdown of numbers of electors identified by Division in Queensland.

Division	Total
Blair	16
Bonner	25
Bowman	28
Brisbane	19
Capricornia	100
Dawson	12
Dickson	17
Fadden	12
Fairfax	5
Fisher	23
Forde	43
Griffith	31
Groom	11
Herbert	7
Hinkler	37
Kennedy	191
Leichhart	31
Lilley	35
Longman	17
Macpherson	4
Maranoa	583
Moncrieff	8
Moreton	10
Oxley	13
Petrie	25
Rankin	21
Ryan	9
Wide Bay	26
Total:	1359

Further information:

Brien Hallett
Assistant Commissioner,
Public Awareness, Media and Research
Ph. (02) 6271 4477
Mobile : 0413 274 798

Phil Diak
Director, Media and Communication
Ph. (02) 6271 4415
Mobile : 0413 452 539