Robert Barry has been a friendly face at far north Queensland polling booths for 50 years, helping Australians vote.
With his welcoming smile and unparalleled knowledge of the election system, the Cairns great-grandfather is a favourite with voters.
Mr Barry's passion for polling booths began in 1967 when, after the presiding officer in his hometown passed away, he had to step up and take on the role — and he hasn't looked back since.
"The first few days were difficult. It was a very new industry for me but I've evolved with it over the years," he said.
"It's changed so much over 50 years. I believe one of the best things to ever happen was the pre-poll voting and the electronic electoral rolls make such a difference.
"You used to have to have a reason to prepoll. Now with the Queensland elections you don't have to have a reason you can just come along and vote.
"It takes the pressure off everyone having to do it on Saturday and takes the pressure off our booths."
Election day takes coffee and concentration
The retiree said the biggest challenge of the job came after the polling booths closed their doors.
"I just enjoy doing it [but] it's quite a challenge," he said.
"Not facilitating the voting but balancing them afterwards. We have to account for every ballot paper.
"On Saturday night [in Cairns alone] 25,000 ballot papers have to be balanced and counted three times."
Mr Barry said it took a lot of coffee and concentration to get it right.
"It's quite intense; candidates want to know whether they've been elected or not and we have timelines and they're quite tight, but we handle it," he said.
"The results that come out of here are quite influential on the outcome. There's very little [room for error]."
Patience is something every electoral officer needs, according to the veteran official.
"Some people don't really want to vote. It can be an inconvenience [so] we just try to be happy and help them," he said.
"We assist people with disabilities with voting [and] if people have difficulty getting out of their vehicle we, along with a scrutineer, help them to vote in their [car].
"I do all elections — Commonwealth, State and Local Government.
"I enjoy politics but I don't belong to any party; we have to be very careful.
"I have my own opinions but we're not allowed to talk about them on voting day; we have to be very impartial."
'People don't like pencils'
Mr Barry said the biggest surprise in his 50 years as an official was seeing the rise of minor parties like One Nation.
"There was one election in Cairns when One Nation first came and we were amazed at the amount of people that voted for them," he said.
"It was usually the two-party system and all of a sudden a third arrived."
Another surprise is regarding the most common question Mr Barry is asked on election days.
"People don't like using pencils to mark ballot papers," he laughed.
Voting 1 for official
Prior to retirement, Mr Barry worked as a city manager in local government for more than three decades.
He also taught business at TAFE full-time but never stopped working as an electoral officer when the time to vote came around.
"I'm retired now. I just love meeting people. I could almost write a book on [the interesting characters I've met]," he said.
"Someone must have liked me because on one ballot paper someone wrote down my name and put the number one next to it. Who it was I don't know."
Although it was flattering, Mr Barry said he would rather voters chose between the official candidates.
Mr Barry, who is originally from South Australia, is 82 this year but said he had no plans to walk away from the polling booths any time soon.
"I'll keep doing it for as long as they'll have me," he said.
"There are no big [50-year] celebrations. I'm just happy to be standing upright."
