Steep rise in postal votes could delay results in closely fought seats in 2022 election, AEC says

Any additional postal voting in the 2022 election puts pressure on the count and has the potential to delay results in close seats. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The Australian Election Commission is recording a steep rise in postal vote applications so far during the campaign, a trend which could delay results in closely fought seats.

Real-time data shows the AEC has received 1.54m postal vote applications already in the election campaign. It received about 1.5m in the entire 2019 election campaign.