Hundreds of voters are being turned away from pre-poll stations across NSW after a problem with the Electoral Commission’s computers.
MPs and party volunteers who are present at polling booths have told the ABC that voters have been turned away from polling booths in crucial marginal electorates including East Hills, Riverstone and Oatley this morning.
There are long lines being reported at others including Lismore and Goulburn.
Pre-poll voting opened yesterday. The NSW election will be held on March 23.
In a statement the NSW Electoral Commission said there was a “performance issue” with its electronic roll mark off system that had resulted in “intermittent outages” at early voting centres.
It said activating backup arrangements to allow voters to have their names marked off on the roll “may result in a delay for some electors casting their vote”.
The commission said “no voting centres are currently closed,” but the ABC has been sent photographs of a number of polling stations with their doors closed and signs up saying “early voting is temporarily closed”.
The ABC understands the iVote system is also down.
Voters who have tried to cast their vote using the electronic system this morning have received this message: “The NSW Electoral Commission has received reports of a usability issue casting a vote using ivote … The voting system will be offline to address this.”
“We apologise for any inconvenience.”
Voters who are eligible for pre-poll voting have until the Friday before the election to cast their vote.
Failing to vote incurs a fine of $55.
Some commentators have suggested up to 1.5 million people could vote early in the NSW election.
In Victoria, record numbers went without their democracy sausage in order to avoid the polling day queues, casting early ballots in November’s state election.
Figures show that more than 1.6 million