The peak body for older Queenslanders, Council on the Ageing (COTA) Queensland Chief Executive, Mark Tucker-Evans said older Queenslanders had expressed concern that they may not have been able to vote in the forthcoming local government elections due to restrictions being put in place to battle COVID-19.
Mark Tucker-Evans commended the Electoral Commission Queensland (ECQ) for initiating special voting times between 9:00am and 11:00am daily for more vulnerable electors including people aged 60 year and over.
Older people are more susceptible to getting sick with COVID-19 particularly those who have chronic illnesses and who may have a weakened immune system.
Pre-polling is available at 128 early voting centres between 9:00am and 9:00pm on Wednesday and Thursday this week and next week and on Saturday 21 March between 9:00am and 5:00pm. All details for the 2020 local government elections is available on www.ecq.qld.gov.au.
Mark Tucker-Evans said that it is important that electors participate in the local government election yet encouraged everyone to take their own pen or pencil when voting, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer and keep a safe distance between each other when in public places. ECQ staff will be deployed to manage queueing safely.
ECQ has now announced that they have put in place measures to enable residential aged care residents to participate in the local government election by way of phone voting.
