Voters out to beat queues

VOTERS are expected to flood pre-polling booths in the Geelong region as punters move to skip voting lines on Saturday, the day of the state election.

More than 6000 Geelong region voters have submitted their ballots at early voting centres or by mail, with thousands more tipped to join the pre-election rush.

South Barwon has seen the most early voters, with 1840 having submitted ballots. It was followed by Geelong (1490), Bellarine (1421) and Lara (1389).

The Victorian Electoral Commission has predicted about 50 per cent of voters will submit ballots before the November 24 election, which would see about 75,000 more voters in the region submit ballots before Saturday.

The VEC has also signalled it plans to count 75 per cent of ballots on election night, which it claims should be enough to give a clear result.

It has also signalled it expects more counting will take place on the Sunday than in previous years.

Deakin University politics expert Geoffrey Robinson said the VEC would feel the pressure to start counting prepolled ballots earlier this year, to provide a clear winner.

“I imagine there is going to be pressure on them to get more counted on the night,” Dr Robinson said.

533 processed postal votes; 888 early votes. 437 processed postal votes; 1053 early votes. 356 processed postal votes; 1033 early votes.

553 processed postal votes; 1287 early votes.

“If it turns out to be a very close election, there may well be more of a delay in terms of actually getting the result clear than there has been previously.”

He predicted independent candidates could become the victims of increased prepolling.

“I think there’s a potential that it makes it harder in a sense for independents and small parties, as you have to organise people to be outside pre-polling centres. That’s something that major parties tend to have more capacity to do,” Dr Robinson said. “It’s sometimes the case that independents fall down on pre-poll organisation or postal votes.”

He also said the explosion in pre-polling popularity would be hard to wind back.

“The horse has bolted, I think, and it will be difficult to close the gate,” he said.

In the 2014 state election 34 per cent of voters cast their ballots before election day.