LOGAN election candidates and their staff have been warned by the Queensland Electoral Commission to behave themselves at pre-polling booths.
Returning officer Anne-Marie Rodd wrote to all candidates, saying that she and her staff had received complaints about the conduct of some volunteers.
Ms Rodd said that pre-polling booths were not the place to pull people over for a chat about issues and who they should vote for and why.
It was illegal to obstruct a voter on the way to the pre-poll.
“If the voter wants to stop for a chat, that is fine, but do not stand between them and the entrance to the booth,’’ she said.
Electors should simply be given a how-to-vote card and be left to vote.
She said there was a “fair bit’’ of canvassing at or near polling booths and it was the law that volunteers could not induce an elector to vote in a particular way.
She sent sections of the Local Government Act to candidates which warns of penalties up to two years’ jail.
“My staff and other staff on random anonymous rotation have been and will continue to check for compliance in these areas,’’ she said.
Mayoral candidate John Freeman said he would not hand out how-to-vote cards, even though he had done so previously.
The former mayor said poor behaviour at polling booths was nothing new.
“This has been going on for years,’’ he said. “People get harassed all the time and they really don’t want it.
“Every election, the electoral commission goes ballistic about this.’’
Mr Freeman said polling day would be difficult, with some booths in heavily contested divisions potentially having 30 or more people handing out cards.
“If each of the five mayoral candidates have three people each and the booth has six divisional candidates, there could be 30 or 40 people,’’ he said.
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