The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has opted to use priority post for postal ballots as the July 2 election looms closer.
An AEC spokesman confirmed the decision was made to send out its Postal Vote Packs using Australia Post’s priority service for voters who are unable to make it to the booth on polling day.
The priority service is more expensive, and promises delivery within one to four business days, while the ordinary service can take up to six.
AEC says it will be printing the election ballot papers of the weekend of June 11 and 12 just before early voting starts on Tuesday June 14. After the Tuesday, the AEC has 14 business days to send out around one million postal ballots for voters to complete and send back in the mail, which the AEC will wait another 10 days to arrive.
The move by the AEC follows after several angry customers have publicly shared their grievances with the mail courier’s service through Australian media outlets.
In one report, a Queensland couple claimed their wedding day was almost ruined after vital wedding paper work was mistakenly transported to Sydney and did not make it back in time for their nuptials.
In another story, a wrestling champion told how her dreams of qualifying at the Rio Olympics were
dashed after she claims Aus Post bungled the delivery of her passport, which did not arrive on time despite using Express Post which promises next day delivery.
Aus Post has recently released its service performance statistics for the first three months of 2016, which are usually released at the end of the year reporting on a 12 month period.
The figures show that for January, February and March its performance levels were above the 94 per cent required target across all services.
The report stated, “Since the two-speed letters system was introduced in January this year for consumer mail, we have continued to exceed the 94 per cent on-time or early delivery standard set by the Federal Government.
“This standard has been exceeded every month and is consistent with the letters service performance for the last 15 years.”
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