Rush of enrolments amid election fever

There has been a massive surge in people wanting to have a say in the 2010 election
with tens of thousands of people added to the electoral roll since Saturday.
The rush to join the roll ahead of the Monday night deadline was so fierce the
Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) at lunchtime boosted its call centre staff by
200 to 700.
The AEC website also crashed for almost an hour as Australians rushed to register to
vote ahead of the August 21 poll.
AEC spokesman Phil Diak said "tens of thousands" of Australians had been added to
the roll since the election was called on Saturday.
"We've had a rush on enrolments today," Mr Diak said.
"There's been an extraordinary number of calls to the national call centre and our
website has been heavily visited all through the day.
"It's has been pretty flat strap."
While the deadline for registering was set to expire at 2000 (AEST) on Monday, those
already on the roll but who want to update their details have until 2000 on
Thursday.