The Australian Electoral Commission says additional government funding is needed to update its IT systems that run elections, warning they are "at the end of their useful life".

Key points: AEC said July's poll saw long queues and ballot paper shortages

AEC said July's poll saw long queues and ballot paper shortages Current system is hard to integrate with contemporary platforms

Current system is hard to integrate with contemporary platforms Postal ballots delays within Australia and from abroad flagged as an issue

It has released a submission to a Senate inquiry into the running of the July poll, saying it successfully delivered the 2016 election despite major changes to the Senate voting system just three months earlier.

The AEC acknowledged there were issues with the length of queues and a shortage of ballot papers in a number of polling places.

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said electronic polling management systems, like the ones used in the recent ACT and Northern Territory elections, would improve productivity and reduce instances of multiple voting.

He warned the current IT systems that managed the election and the electoral roll are "at the end of their useful life".

"The IT systems, which have been built over a long period of time, are not able to be easily integrated with contemporary mobile platforms and in many cases, will not be supported by vendors in future," he said.

Mr Rogers did not outline how much additional funding would be required.

Government, Labor frustrated with counting delays

The LNP in Queensland raised concerns in its submission that a number of voters were unable to cast a postal ballot in time for the election, while expressing frustration at the length of time it took to finalise results in a number of seats.

It also repeated concerns about the use of text messages and robo-calling from Labor and the union movement in the lead-up to the July 2 election, including the 'Medicare' campaign which was condemned by the Federal Government.

The ALP, in its submission, suggested more resources could be allocated for counting votes in seats where the result was tight or uncertain.

It also raised concerns about the rejection of provisional votes in the seat of Herbert, which the ALP won by a margin of just 37 votes.

The AEC noted that under the legislation, it has to wait 13 days to receive postal votes before being able to finalise the count.

The ABC's election analyst Antony Green in a submission to the inquiry recommended the limited introduction of electronic voting as a replacement for postal voting, to ease the problems associated with overseas or absent ballot papers.

AEC admits losing votes from Chile

The AEC has also revealed it had temporarily "misplaced" 118 votes taken at one of its overseas polling places in Santiago, Chile.

The AEC said the in-country courier mislabelled the consignment causing it to be misplaced in transit, and while the votes were recovered, they were found too late to be included in the count.

While the AEC said it was mindful of the potential impact on close seats, it said the votes from Santiago "did not impact final results".