The WA Electoral Commission has come under fire for its handling of the state election on March 8. (ABC News: Andrew O'Connor)
We're lucky to live in a country where elections are rarely, if ever, described as a "shit show".
It makes it all the more surprising when things go wrong, as they seem to have when Western Australians went to the polls last weekend.
Talkback radio has been filled with complaints, as is Nationals leader Shane Love's inbox, he said.
"In fact, it is overfull and now bouncing complaints back from people who have been disenfranchised, people who have worked in the system for years, worked in many elections, who have never seen such a poorly run election," Mr Love told reporters on Wednesday.
Shane Love says his inbox is full of complaints about how the election was conducted. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
"We're seeing staff who have been under-resourced or under-trained and polling booths where people have been turned away because there simply wasn't enough ballot papers at the polling booths.
"This is an absolute shit show.
"This actually is terrible and it is a threat to our democracy."
These issues would matter in any election, but with eight seats still too close to call, any issues which raise questions about the legitimacy of the final result are problematic to say the least.
Even politicians weren't spared from problems, as Upper House Labor MP Kate Doust found out.
"They couldn't find me on the [electoral] roll," she told ABC Radio Perth.
Kate Doust says staff could not find her name on the electoral roll. (ABC News: Hugh Sando)
"And I actually pointed to the ballot paper and said 'that's me, I'm on the ballot paper, therefore I must be enrolled'."
But trying to work out exactly what went wrong and why is much more difficult than identifying the problems.
Blame game
At the core of the issues, according to Love, is the WA Electoral Commission's decision to outsource staffing of the election to a private company, PersolKelly.
In the days after the election, information from the WA government, the Electoral Commission and the company involved about the arrangement was hard to come by.
Nearly a week on from the poll, it's the WA Electoral Commission firmly in the hot seat.
People voting at Dalkeith Primary School on Saturday, March 8. (ABC News: Andrew O'Connor)
"No minister received a briefing on the commission's decision to engage a private contractor to provide temporary election workforce services," a state government spokesperson said on Friday afternoon.
"No minister was involved in the procurement process nor received a briefing on the appointment of PersolKelly once the appointment was made.
"The WAEC has advised that it did not brief the minister for electoral affairs [the retiring John Quigley] about the engagement of PersolKelly to ensure the integrity of the procurement process and to prevent any appearance of interference by the government in the selection of the successful tenderer."
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Photo shows People lining up to to vote at polling place.
While it appears there was no legal obligation for the commission to advise government of its plans, many would question why it was not made aware of the change.
PersolKelly argued "previous state and federal election commissions have appointed recruitment companies to supply staff in a similar way".
The commission acknowledged it had used recruitment companies before, but in a different way.
"In 2021, a contractor was engaged for the provision of recruitment services for the WAEC Processing Centre and early polling place staff," a spokesperson said.
That's a much smaller part of the workforce than what PersolKelly supplied this time, which included polling place staff on election day.
Staff numbers in spotlight
The number of staff hired was another potential sticking point, with PersolKelly putting the figure at 7,000.
"The WAEC determines all the staffing requirements," the company said.
The commission said its contractor provided the staff it requested "in line with the project's requirements".
WA Electoral Commissioner Robert Kennedy said on Sunday there would be an investigation into the election. (ABC News: Julian Robins)
The obvious question is whether the commission requested enough staff.
Another question is how well those staff were trained.
"The training was particularly poor and inadequate," was Shane Love's view.
"I feel for those people who tried to express their democratic vote at the election, then were turned away, or were misguided in the marking of their ballot because they were wrongly informed at the booth about how to do it."
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Photo shows People holding ballot papers
PersolKelly said its role was simply "distributing the specialist training modules provided by the WAEC".
The commission said the mixture of training, including online and face-to-face was "consistent with the approach used in previous elections".
"The WAEC delivered more face-to-face training in 2025," a spokesperson said.
The quality of that training will be another key issue for any investigation to consider.
So too, former Liberal leader Zak Kirkup believes, is the resourcing of the WAEC.
"[The WAEC] never get resourced to what they actually ask for, despite there being more pressure around the security and integrity of our elections," he wrote on social media.
Premier wants independent probe
The problem for all involved right now is there are many more questions than there are satisfying answers.
It's not helped by Robert Kennedy, the Electoral Commissioner, refusing to speak to the media until after counting is completed, saying that is his focus.
The commission has promised a "full investigation" into the conduct of the election.
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Photo shows Perth City and Claisebrook Cove
"This investigation will commence after the final declaration of results for this election," a spokesperson said on Sunday.
Premier Roger Cook looks to want to go one step further, when the time is right.
"The priority right now is for the count to be completed," he said during the week.
"The state government will establish an independent investigation at an appropriate time."
Mr Love wants to go one step further again and see a parliamentary inquiry — which can call witnesses — probe what went wrong.
He has also asked the Corruption and Crime Commission to investigate the processes surrounding the contract being awarded.
Whatever form the investigation, or investigations, take they will be crucial in rebuilding trust in the state's electoral process which has taken a battering over the last week.
Check out our 2025 WA state election page for all of the ABC's coverage.
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