More than 1800 people cast their vote at West Dubbo Public School – 460 more than was forecast and about double the number that voted in 2013.

State manager for NSW Doug Orr said the AEC underestimated the level of growth in West Dubbo.

“We knew it was a growth area so in 2013 that polling place took about 928 ordinary votes and we estimated about 1388 this time so a 50 per cent increase,” Mr Orr said.

“But it ended up over 1800 people voted there.”

Mr Orr said moving the venue from Dubbo College Delroy campus to West Dubbo Public School may have affected numbers, while a rise in provisional voters (those who take longer to process because they can’t be found on the electoral role) has also been blamed.

The booth also received 27 voters from neighbouring seat Calare – double what the AEC had anticipated.

The booth was equipped to cope with the increase, Mr Orr said, but queue times blew out about 10.30am when an influx of voters converged on West Dubbo.

He said the electoral commission reacted quickly to the rush, calling in three additional staff, two additional certified electoral lists and even the Divisional Returning Officer for Parkes Erin Eames to speed up the process.

It is believed many voters chose to move to other polling venues to escape the queue.

“The AEC regrets that people had to queue,” Mr Orr said.

“We have a ten minute marker as about right, knowing we don’t want to exceed that but what we can’t control is how people come in on voting day.

“But we do apologise for the fact that people had to queue. We did react to that as quickly as we could but there were still queues in place.”

Mr Orr said the AEC would review feedback from its polling places ahead of the next federal election to ensure people had a better voting experience.