The Electoral Commission of Queensland has announced all declarations for the 2024 State General election have been completed and the writ has been returned to the Governor, Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeanette Young.
Electoral Commissioner Pat Vidgen said to have the election delivered and all declarations completed within 13 days of the 26 October election is an extraordinary effort by everyone involved.
“Almost 3.23 million people voted in this election, representing a voter turnout of 87.75 per cent, which is around the same as the 2020 State general election (87.92 per cent),” he said.
The enormity of delivering an event of this scale can be seen in the numbers of people, places and resources we engaged to make it happen, Mr Vidgen said.
“Our team for this election comprised of more than 15,000 election staff and 93 Returning Officers,” he said.
“We extended voting hours to 100 hours at over 200 venues, which resulted in around 50 per cent of votes being cast before the doors opened on election day.
“Postal voting comprised 16 per cent of the vote, while election day votes made up 31 per cent of the vote.
“Our staff have worked promptly to ensure all votes were scrutinised and counted in a timely manner to bring this election to a close,” he said
“To deliver election day on Saturday 26 October, there were over 1,000 polling booths at the ready to handle almost 1 million eligible voters who voted across the state.
“Comparatively, the trend for this election favoured early voting over election day voting, which is something we will consider in future planning.
“In addition to these figures there were postal votes, mobile polling and telephone votes that added to the impressively large number of votes processed for 2024.
“Whilst the numbers are impressive, it is still important to note that 3.9 per cent were deemed informal, meaning they were unable to be counted.
“I want to also thank the 525 candidates who stood for election, either endorsed by one of nine registered political parties or as an independent, eager to represent their constituents in the Queensland Parliament.
“A recount was also undertaken in Aspley where the results were very close.
“The writ has been returned to the Governor, and the ECQ begins the process of compiling the election report detailing an analysis and evaluation of the event,” Mr Vidgen said.
When complete, the election report will be tabled in Parliament and made available on the ECQ’s website at ecq.qld.gov.au.
Full results: Vote Result System | Electoral Commission of Queensland
Editor’s Note: The Westender extends it congratulations to the successful candidate for South Brisbane, Dr Barbara O’Shea, and looks forward to working with her.
