diff --git a/templates/sim-a11y-view.html b/templates/sim-a11y-view.html
index 2aa18d9f2..574d9ee07 100644
--- a/templates/sim-a11y-view.html
+++ b/templates/sim-a11y-view.html
@@ -225,7 +225,6 @@ <h3>Static and Dynamic Descriptions</h3>
 
       // get the parent container for the parallel DOM copy and the alert content
       var copyContainer = document.getElementById( 'dom-copy-container' );
-      var politeElementContainer = document.getElementById( 'polite-element-container' );
 
       // add the copies to the outer document
       copyContainer.appendChild( pDOMCopy );