CANBERRA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The agency responsible for conducting Australia's elections will deploy computer modelling to reduce queuing time for voters in May's general election.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has been working with experts from Melbourne's Deakin University to design the software that can predict how many staff will be required at polling booths nationwide to reduce waiting time.
"We have worked very hard this electoral cycle to further improve the voter experience," AEC spokesperson Evan Ekin-Smyth told News Corp Australia on Tuesday.
"For the 2019 federal election there will be an increase in the number of AEC polling officials issuing votes, an increase to the number of voting screens in polling venues, improvements to the setup of polling places to allow easier throughput, and the use of mini-queues to assist the flow of voters."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to call the general election for May in the coming days, with May 18 or 25 the most likely dates, according to local reports.
Deakin project leader Michael Johnstone said the system uses data gained from recent elections to conduct simulations and predict the busiest polling booths.
"Queues at polling places are unfortunately unavoidable due to variations in the arrival rates of electors but our model can provide an estimate of queue times and behavior, helping electoral officers to more accurately predict resource requirements for materials and personnel, and to find the right balance between polling place performance and cost," he said.
