Up to 80,000 South Australians have been sent letters about failing to vote in the state election — but the Electoral Commission says recipients should not be concerned.
South Australians in several suburbs including West Croydon and Modbury have been alarmed after receiving letters from the Electoral Commission of SA (ECSA) regarding their apparent failure to vote in the March election, even though they say they had.
However, ECSA's James Trebilcock said recipients of the letter should not be alarmed.
Mr Trebilcock told ABC Radio Adelaide that the letters were "part of the normal electoral process".
"All we've done is gone back through our system and looking at the records on the electoral roll and some people have slipped through the cracks potentially," he said.
Mr Trebilcock stressed that "every vote that was cast" by South Australians was counted, even those that received the letter.
Mr Trebilock said the letters could be generated from mistakes in people's names being checked off the electoral roll when they entered the polling booth.
"Some of these things just come down to human error in terms of people when they're being marked off with the QR code system and things like that," he said.
The March election was South Australia's first since the pandemic but despite the challenges COVID brought to voting, Mr Trebilcock said the number of apparent failure to vote notices was in the normal range.
"It's in line with what we've had with previous elections," he said.
Mr Trebilcock said recipients of the letter who did vote should fill in the form attached with the time and location they cast their ballot.
"We'll match that against our records and the matter will be done," he said.
People who did not vote will need to provide a "fair and reasonably excuse" as to why.
Those that do not respond to the notice, or who did not vote and do not have a reasonable explanation, will receive a $102 penalty.
