Confusion around the voting process for residents in COVID-affected aged care homes may lead to "isolated" incidents where elderly Australians are unable to vote, according to the sector's peak body.
Rule changes announced by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and accepted by the federal government this morning, mean anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 as of 6pm Friday can vote by phone.
Previously, anyone who tested positive before Tuesday but had not applied for a postal ballot would not have been allowed to vote over the phone.
But Colleen Measday said her father Ray had been in lockdown at his Gold Coast aged care home for about a week, after a number of his fellow residents tested positive.
Ms Measday said because her father tested negative, he was not eligible to vote by phone but was unable to leave his aged care home.
"Because he doesn't have COVID, when I inquired about telephone voting I was told by the AEC that was only for people who had proof of being COVID-positive," she said.
Almost one-third of aged care facilities are experiencing COVID outbreaks, but according to Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Paul Saddler, "no concerns" have been raised about any major voting problems.
No other options
Ms Measday said uncertainty around the length of her father's isolation period meant she had hoped to take him to vote in-person on Saturday, and so missed the application deadline for postal voting.
She said she only realised yesterday that he may be unable to vote.
"When so much has happened to people in aged care over the last two years, they're just being excluded from being able to participate in society," she said.
Mr Saddler said facilities locked down in the past few days were likely to experience voting issues.
Mr Saddler said the AEC provided about 25 per cent of aged care centres in Australia with polling stations.
"In other places they've been providing assistance to the staff to help residents apply for a postal vote or visit nearby in-person voting centres," he said.
"We've had no concerns raised with us by aged care providers across the country of major problems within the past week."
Mr Saddler said about 760 aged care homes, or 30 per cent of the country's total, had COVID outbreaks.
"They're not all in full lockdown thankfully but there's certainly still widespread impact," he said.
Request to expand phone voting
Ms Measday said phone voting should be extended to aged care residents who were COVID-negative, but required to remain in isolation.
"No one else is stuck in their houses anymore who are COVID-negative, people don't have to isolate anymore, but aged care residents do," she said.
Paul Saddler said he would support expanding phone voting to all aged care residents in lockdown "if feasible".
A spokesperson for the AEC said it was bound by legislation to make phone voting only available for COVID-positive people.
"Postal voting has been heavily promoted and available for people in aged care facilities so the majority of residents had the option to apply for a postal vote prior to the deadline of 6pm Wednesday," the spokesperson said.
"If a person cannot access the services available in their area, they will receive a letter from the AEC after the election informing there is no record of them voting.
A spokesperson for Ms Measday's father's aged care home said an email outlining voting options was sent to residents' families on April 8 and that updates had been provided throughout the past week.
The spokesperson said after consulting the Australian Electoral Commission this morning, any residents and their families who were concerned about voting should contact the AEC directly.
