7 October 2004

As the 2004 election results come into Canberra’s National Tally Room on October 9, they will also be available online via the AEC’s Virtual Tally Room at www.aec.gov.au. Cutting edge technology will allow result details to be simultaneously delivered to those gathered at the National Tally Room and to Australians at home by their computers.

More than 300 press television and radio journalists, along with 400 network staff from ABC, Nine, Ten, Seven, SBS and Sky television are geared for live broadcasts of election results at the National Tally Room.

National Tally Room Manager, Mr Bill Chilvers said that organising the National Tally Room was a massive logistical job. “We began by laying the floor and building the tally board. Then there was the electricity supply, air conditioning telecommunication lines, cabling, planning for the television broadcast facilities and the allocation for the journalists.”

In addition to the media, there will be 100 political party representatives, 100 AEC staff, 160 official guests and 50 service providers such as ACTEWAGL, Optus, Telstra, Spotless, Epic, and Allied Cabling at the National Tally Room on election night.

Election results are transmitted to the National Tally Room from every divisional office around Australia via the AEC’s computerised election management system. The first results are expected from Tasmania from about 5.30pm Canberra time. The results will be displayed using the AEC’s sophisticated online election results system, the Virtual Tally Room, on 37 computer terminals that will be available to the media and members of political parties. Results are also simultaneously fed to the television networks that present their election coverage from the temporary studios at the back of the National Tally Room.

Mr Chilvers said public access to the National Tally Room was very limited because of space restrictions. “However this isn’t the only Tally Room that the AEC provides for the public. As soon as the counting starts, people can access the Virtual Tally Room from the AEC website at www.aec.gov.au and they can watch the same results unfold online”.

At the 2001 federal election, the Virtual Tally Room had more than 5.6 million hits, over 800,000 page views, and an average visitor length in excess of 30 minutes with overseas visitors representing about 25 per cent.

Further information:

National Tally Room Manager
Bill Chivers
Ph. (02) 6271 4553
Mobile. 0411 045 531