Postal votes could be the difference

IF the ultra-marginal seat of Corangamite isn’t decided on Saturday, more than 16,000 votes that won’t be counted on election night could prove crucial to the political fate of Labor’s Libby Coker and the Liberals’ Stephanie Asher.

In Corangamite, 16,356 postal votes have been returned but these votes won’t be tallied on Saturday night.

More than 23,000 postal votes have been sent out in the electorate that stretches from Bannockburn in the north to the Bellarine Peninsula in the east, Torquay in the south and Inverleigh in the west.

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said many people wanted to vote before election day. “People are taking advantage of the options the Australian election system makes available – pre-poll, postal, remote mobile votes, couriered overseas votes, in-person overseas votes and even telephone voting are all being utilised by those eligible to do so,” Mr Rogers said.

“For those areas of concern, people are putting their hand up to help deliver democracy in their community, which is great, but we need more.”

In Corio, where Labor MP Richard Marles holds the seat on a 10 per cent margin, 14,171 postal votes have come back from a total of about 20,000 sent out.

More than 30,600 voters, or about 27 per cent, enrolled in the Corangamite electorate have voted. In Corio 31,150 voters, or 28 per cent, have voted.