WA Electoral Commissioner Robert Kennedy resigns months after problem-plagued state election

WA's top election official has resigned, nine months after the state's problem plagued election that led to widespread complaints from voters.

Electoral Commissioner Robert Kennedy oversaw the March 2025 election that was beset by reports of long wait times and some polling places running out of ballot papers.

The ABC revealed concerns had been raised, but seemingly not adequately addressed, in the lead-up to the election over the Electoral Commission taking the unprecedented step of outsourcing much of its workforce.

As the scale of problems with the poll began to emerge, Mr Kennedy took leave until the end of the year.

The government has now confirmed Mr Kennedy has offered his resignation to the governor.

An independent inquiry into the poll concluded the issues largely stemmed from the government denying a request by Mr Kennedy for more money, which led to his director of election operations reducing staffing numbers to stay within budget.

The government insisted it had told Mr Kennedy he could come back to them to ask for more money to cover any overruns after the election, but that never occurred. 

Reported ultimatum

The West Australian newspaper had reported that ahead of the final sitting week of parliament for the year, the state government told Mr Kennedy to resign or be removed by a vote of parliament.

While other senior government officials can be sacked by the government, the commissioner's independence means he can only be removed by his resignation or via rarely used powers that would have involved the governor.

Acting Electoral Commissioner Dennis O'Reilly, sent in to improve the commission and implement recommendations from the inquiry, is expected to continue in the role until an official successor is appointed.

Nationals leader and Shadow Electoral Affairs Minister, Shane Love, said he felt "a great deal of relief" at Mr Kennedy's resignation.

"It gives the opportunity now for Western Australia's Electoral Commission to get the leadership sorted," he said.

Mr Love said while the government needed to reflect its role in the funding issues which led to problems, he stopped short of describing Mr Kennedy as a scapegoat.

"The refusal by the treasurer to provide the money requested by the Electoral Commission sat at the base of its decision to cut staff and led to many of the disastrous outcomes," he said.

"So I think that the government needs to accept that that was a mistake.

"That's why it's so important that, moving forward, we don't have an Electoral Commission where it feels that it's constrained in budget terms, and will provide a cut-price election."

He said while there were good signs the commission was improving, appointing a substantive commissioner was an important next step.

"And in my view, the government should be advertising the position widely because it is a specialist industry," he said.

"I have confidence in the acting commissioner, in the work that his crew have been doing, but in terms of recruitment we need to look as widely as possible."

Electoral Affairs Minister David Michael thanked Mr Kennedy "for his service to the community" and said a new commissioner and deputy commissioner would be appointed "in due course" after consultation with other parliamentary parties.