Election Night Data Outage
Jarred Crowe made this Freedom of Information request to Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Dear ABC,
I am writing to formally request access to documents related to the ABC’s coverage of the 2025 federal election on election night, Saturday 3 May 2025, during which a technical outage resulted in no updated data being displayed for a significant period on the television broadcast or the ABC News website.
Specifically, I kindly request access to the following documents:
1. Plans for the collection and collation of election result data for broadcast on ABC TV and publication on the ABC News website, including any fallback procedures in place in the event of a technical outage.
2. Reports and correspondence relating to the outage that occurred on election night.
Kindly,
Jarred Crowe
Dear Mr Crowe
ABC FOI 202425-131
The ABC acknowledges receipt of the below freedom of information request received Monday 19 May 2025 seeking access to:
... documents related to the ABC’s coverage of the 2025 federal election on election night, Saturday 3 May 2025, during which a technical outage resulted in no updated data being displayed for a significant period on the television broadcast or the ABC News website.
...the following documents:
1. Plans for the collection and collation of election result data for broadcast on ABC TV and publication on the ABC News website, including any fallback procedures in place in the event of a technical outage.
2. Reports and correspondence relating to the outage that occurred on election night.
Regarding pt 2, can you confirm the dates you refer to regarding '...correspondence relating to the outage that occurred on election night'.
A decision on the request is due to be made by Wednesday 18 June 2025, subject to any extensions of time for consultation or by agreement. The ABC will advise if any processing fees apply.
Further, if this request is considered too large to process under s 24 of the FOI Act, the ABC will contact you about a request consultation process regarding the scope of the request.
By making a FOI request, you are providing personal information to the ABC. The ABC manages personal information in accordance with its Privacy Policy - available at https://help.abc.net.au/hc/en-us/article... . Personal information may be disclosed in the course of processing this request, such as for the purposes of consultation or internal reporting.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
13 9994
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jarred Crowe <[FOI #13189 email]>
Sent: Monday, 19 May 2025 2:44 PM
To: FOI ABC <[ABC request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Election Night Data Outage
Dear ABC,
I am writing to formally request access to documents related to the ABC’s coverage of the 2025 federal election on election night, Saturday 3 May 2025, during which a technical outage resulted in no updated data being displayed for a significant period on the television broadcast or the ABC News website.
Specifically, I kindly request access to the following documents:
1. Plans for the collection and collation of election result data for broadcast on ABC TV and publication on the ABC News website, including any fallback procedures in place in the event of a technical outage.
2. Reports and correspondence relating to the outage that occurred on election night.
Kindly,
Jarred Crowe
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Dear ABC Team,
Regarding the scope of item 2, "Reports and correspondence relating to the outage that occurred on election night." I request corispondance relevant to the topic occouring between 3 May 2025 and the 22 May 2025.
Kindly, Jarred Crowe
Dear ABC FOI Team,
I am following up on my FOI request (ABC FOI 202425-131) regarding documentation of the technical outage on election night, Saturday, 3 May 2025.
While I did not previously nominate it as a fresh start date, I am willing to consider my 16 July 2025 clarification as the effective commencement date for processing, as a good-faith gesture to assist the ABC. On that basis, the statutory 30-day decision period expired on 15 August 2025.
To date, I have not received a decision, nor any formal notice of an extension under section 15AB or 15AC of the FOI Act. Could you please advise:
1) Whether a decision has been made on this request, and if so when I can expect to receive it.
2) The ABC’s intended revised timeframe for providing a decision.
Even with the benefit of this reset, the statutory timeframe has now passed. I would appreciate your attention to finalising this matter.
Kindly,
Jarred Crowe
ABC FOI 202425-131
Good evening Mr Crowe
Thank you for your emails.
Confirming there was no agreement to extend the processing time of your initial request meaning this decision became a deemed refusal on the original due date.
We apologise that this occurred, staff were taking annual leave entitlements at this time you decision was due.
When you emailed in July about part 2 of your request only, you did not state you would like to withdraw your earlier request. Therefore, your email was not understood to be a new request or a point in time where the timeframe of your request could be reset - your decision remained a deemed refusal.
You have asked when the ABC intends to provide a decision. If you would like the ABC to make a substantive decision, you may start a new request that would be due in 30 days under a new timeframe. This file would have a new file number. You have the option of withdrawing the earlier (deemed) request or it would remain a deemed refusal.
Alternatively, you may wish to exercise review rights. This option tends to take a lot longer than starting a new FOI request but is entirely your choice.
We appreciate your patience and apologise for the delay; we are experiencing a high workload.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jarred Crowe <[FOI #13189 email]>
Sent: Monday, 18 August 2025 11:29 PM
To: FOI ABC <[ABC request email]>
Subject: Re: FOI 131 - Acknowledgment of request
Dear ABC FOI Team,
I am following up on my FOI request (ABC FOI 202425-131) regarding documentation of the technical outage on election night, Saturday, 3 May 2025.
While I did not previously nominate it as a fresh start date, I am willing to consider my 16 July 2025 clarification as the effective commencement date for processing, as a good-faith gesture to assist the ABC. On that basis, the statutory 30-day decision period expired on 15 August 2025.
To date, I have not received a decision, nor any formal notice of an extension under section 15AB or 15AC of the FOI Act. Could you please advise:
1) Whether a decision has been made on this request, and if so when I can expect to receive it.
2) The ABC’s intended revised timeframe for providing a decision.
Even with the benefit of this reset, the statutory timeframe has now passed. I would appreciate your attention to finalising this matter.
Kindly,
Jarred Crowe
-----Original Message-----
Dear Mr Crowe
ABC FOI 202425-131
The ABC acknowledges receipt of the below freedom of information request received Monday 19 May 2025 seeking access to:
... documents related to the ABC’s coverage of the 2025 federal election on election night, Saturday 3 May 2025, during which a technical outage resulted in no updated data being displayed for a significant period on the television broadcast or the ABC News website.
...the following documents:
1. Plans for the collection and collation of election result data for broadcast on ABC TV and publication on the ABC News website, including any fallback procedures in place in the event of a technical outage.
2. Reports and correspondence relating to the outage that occurred on election night.
Regarding pt 2, can you confirm the dates you refer to regarding '...correspondence relating to the outage that occurred on election night'.
A decision on the request is due to be made by Wednesday 18 June 2025, subject to any extensions of time for consultation or by agreement. The ABC will advise if any processing fees apply.
Further, if this request is considered too large to process under s 24 of the FOI Act, the ABC will contact you about a request consultation process regarding the scope of the request.
By making a FOI request, you are providing personal information to the ABC. The ABC manages personal information in accordance with its Privacy Policy - available at https://help.abc.net.au/hc/en-us/article... . Personal information may be disclosed in the course of processing this request, such as for the purposes of consultation or internal reporting.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
13 9994
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #13189 email]
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....
Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
The information contained in this email and any attachment is confidential and may contain legally privileged or copyright material. It is intended only for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are not permitted to disseminate, distribute or copy this email or any attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. The ABC does not represent or warrant that this transmission is secure or virus free. Before opening any attachment you should check for viruses. The ABC's liability is limited to resupplying any email and attachments.