South Australian Electoral Commission faced severe staffing shortages ahead of 2026 state election

"Can it get any worse ?????"

"I started today crying at 4am — this is nuts."

"Hi again, STUART still has 4 booths unstaffed."

"I am now literally begging you for a response to this request."

These are four separate messages sent by staff at the South Australian Electoral Commission (ECSA) days before the March 21 state election.

The frantic emails and Teams chats, obtained by the ABC via Freedom of Information (FOI), reveal that senior staff were still trying to find polling booth managers only hours before election day.

ECSA's handling of the 2026 election — which was plagued by issues including technical glitches, long queues, missing ballots, payment delays and Aboriginal voters being mistakenly turned away — is already subject to an independent review that is due to be handed down before the end of the year.

Former Australian electoral commissioner Tom Rogers, who was appointed lead reviewer in April, said the documents obtained by the ABC made for "distressing reading" and that he had received "a lot of evidence of those sorts of things".

"I'm going to make a full set of findings and recommendations about those issues," Mr Rogers said.

Acting SA Electoral Commissioner Leah McLay also said she was "extremely concerned" to see reports of worker distress during the election period.

Problems in the western suburbs

ECSA's staffing scramble appeared to be particularly serious in one electorate in the western suburbs.

The seat's returning officer, responsible for managing the election within that district, emailed two senior ECSA officials on the Thursday night before the election.

The returning officer provided a list of polling booth managers (PBMs) and deputies (DPBMs) for their seat.

"Hi Team, hope all is well and thanks for all that you are doing in these trying times," the email read.

"I have asked some deputies to step up as managers as I had less than half of my PBM spots allocated as at 9:00 last night.

"I have one spot for a PBM as one has pulled out this afternoon.

"If it is at all possible to bring in [redacted], I would be eternally grateful, I know he can hit the ground running without training.

"I am now literally begging you for a response to this request."

The returning officer also warned that one of the polling booths "could be shut down" and that "venues have not been contacted as I have not had any names at this point".

The next day around 5pm, with the election now less than 24 hours away, the returning officer advised that another polling worker had pulled out.

"This leaves [one western suburbs booth] without a PBM, DPBM and has not been set up," the returning officer said in a Teams message.

A senior official replied asking whether they had anyone to fill that position, adding: "I have an experienced PBM who is willing to step in however, it's her birthday tomorrow and she would need to finish at 6.30pm."

The returning officer replied: "I sent through a spreadsheet last night clearly indicating where my pbms were to go."

"I have allocated today based on that, the staffing that has just come through has not followed that at all, they are all over the place.

Later that night, the returning officer said they had told polling booth managers that "they may have people rock up who aren't meant to work at their booths".

"I will redeploy on the fly tomorrow morning," the returning officer said.

Issues on polling day

ECSA set up nearly 700 polling booths on election day and advertised for a workforce of 8,000 people.

But when polls opened at 8am on Saturday, some booths were closed due to technical issues, while others were shuttered entirely.

At a polling booth in Adelaide's western suburbs, only one person was trained to manage declaration votes — ballots cast by a voter outside their enrolled district — according to a note written by a returning officer on a time sheet after the election.

The returning officer wrote that this person "ran the count" because the polling booth manager "was only appointed hours before polling opened".

"She could not take a break as no one else was trained in Dec's [declaration votes]," the handwritten note said.

"This booth should not have been opened."

'We are not closing booths'

The scope of the ABC's FOI request only covered the seats of Lee, Morphett and Stuart — three electorates known to have had issues on polling day.

All three returning officers appeared to be grappling with similar problems.

In one email, sent 48 hours before polls opened, one of them said:

"Can it get any worse ?????"

"I need help as I now only have 2 polling official staff allocated and we are the host of the shared booth !!!"

Stuart, the state's largest regional electorate, stretching from Port Pirie to the APY Lands, also had significant problems.

"Hi again, STUART still has 4 booths unstaffed — Woomera, Booborowie, Jamestown and Leigh Creek [currently cut off]," an email sent three days before the election read.

A senior ECSA manager replied: "The team are working hard to fill these locations with very limited people that want to or are available to work."

The night before election day, the returning officers in Lee, Morphett and Stuart all received an identical email from another senior ECSA official with a staffing list for their polling booths.

The email, which did not land until nearly 8pm for the returning officer in Stuart, said ECSA had been "reassessing the staffing needs for booths because of reduced activity".

"Please note: we are not closing booths unless specifically authorised by the Commissioner," the official warned, only hours before election day.

"The priority has been to ensure we have a PBM in every booth — some gaps remain."

'Significant operational issues' acknowledged

There has already been a widespread fallout from ECSA's handling of the state election.

Former SA electoral commissioner Mick Sherry stepped down in July, after months of pressure.

The state government also passed legislation to delay November's council elections until April 2027, after ECSA advised it had "very serious concerns" it could administer the poll.

The government-commissioned review led by Mr Rogers has now received more than 1,000 online submissions.

Mr Rogers told the ABC the "vast majority" of those submissions had come from temporary election staff.

"There's issues with staffing, pay and how the polling operated itself," he said.

Mr Rogers said he had seen the documents obtained by the ABC, adding: "It's never easy reading those things — it's distressing reading how people are impacted by those sorts of issues."

Mr Rogers also confirmed he had interviewed Mr Sherry as part of his inquiries and had received "full cooperation" from ECSA.

Ms McLay, who joined ECSA in January, said the commission looked forward to receiving the review's recommendations.

"The safety and wellbeing of our workforce must always be a priority," she said in a statement.

"The full extent of these issues is being investigated by the independent external review, which the Commission is supporting.

"We won't be pre-empting Mr Rogers' independent findings by commenting publicly about the issues he is investigating."