After some email delivery issues during the 2025 Federal Election campaign, we’ve fine tuned our email sending infrastructure to ensure emails get delivered when there are lots of people using the tool.

We’ve rebuilt our server infrastructure, improved monitoring and completed load testing to make sure we don't experience any major outages like we did during the 2025 campaign.

We’re in the process of reviewing the entire tool, and broader website, to ensure they meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards. We’re also working to refine the UX to make Build a Ballot easier to use for all people.

We’re not going to include this in the main Build a Ballot tool (it’s just too complex!) but we’re looking at ways we can create resources that make planning your vote below the line easier.

We're working to add multi language functionality to the tool so that Build a Ballot can be more easily used by all communities.

The Build a Ballot questionnaire will move from a binary support / oppose format to a 4-point scale — from “Strongly oppose“ to “Strongly support“ — to provide better matches between users and candidates.

While our exact approach for future elections will depend on capacity, timing, funding, and partnerships, we’re currently considering several ways we can increase public input and transparency.

We’re planning to add an ‘other’ option to the '‘What is the top issue impacting your vote?’ question so you can let us know what’s important to you if it’s not already on the list.

We’re thinking we’ll add a toggle on the results page, so you can decide which order you’d like your voting plan in (either ballot or preference order).

The pop up that appears once you’ve selected your electorate confused some people, so we’re looking at how we can build clearer onboarding prompts.

Election campaigns are exceptionally busy, and we want to make it as straightforward as possible for candidates and parties to engage — without compromising on the quality of evidence we require. This will likely look like a ‘portal’ where candidates and parties can submit evidence and respond to additional questions or requests. This should make it easier for multiple people within a campaign team to collaborate on their Build a Ballot submission, while reducing unnecessary back-and-forth and delays.

During the 2025 election, a user emailed us to let us know that they had attended a candidate forum and a candidate has expressed views that contradicted our assessment. Acting on this tip, we went back to the candidate, updated their position, and ultimately provided a more accurate assessment in the Build a Ballot tool.

We want to design a streamlined, ‘self-serve’ system that makes it easier for us to capture this kind of information and address any position discrepancies quickly.

This could look like an expanded version of our existing transparency hub, allowing users to submit, review and upvote ‘evidence’ about candidates. All final decisions would remain subject to review.