Pre-polling, postal voting prove popular

Voters across Moreton Bay Region are eager to have their say in this year’s State Government election, with more than half already casting their votes in person or by post ahead of election day.

Almost 30 percent of people across the region have registered for a postal vote, while 20.6 percent voted in person in the first week of pre-polling, which ended on October 24.

The figures are in line with predictions from Griffith University Senior Lecturer School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science Dr Paul Williams, who says more than 50 percent of people are expected to cast their vote before election day.

“We don’t talk of polling day any more, instead it’s an election period,” Paul says.

Leading the way

The electorates of Morayfield, Glasshouse and Pine Rivers are leading the way in the pre-polling stakes across the region, with 27 percent, 26 percent and 25 percent of voters respectively having cast their votes in the past week.

Paired with the number of applications for postal voting, the pre-polling takes the total of people who have voted before election day in Morayfield to 47 percent.

In the knife-edge seat of Pumicestone, 24 percent of people had pre-polled by the end of the first week of early voting. Adding postal votes takes the tally of early voters to 50 percent.

In Kurwongbah, 14 percent of registered voters visited an early polling centre last week, with a further 30 percent registered for postal voting.

Eager voters poll early

Everton’s combined pre-poll and postal vote number stands at 54 percent, with 35 percent of enrolled voters casting their ballot at an early voting centre ahead of election day.

In Ferny Grove, almost 49 percent of enrolled voters applied for a postal vote and 12.6 percent have visited an early voting centre, while almost 43 percent have opted for an early vote by post or in person in Morayfield.

In the seat of Redcliffe, 12,101 (26 percent) of registered voters applied for a postal vote, and 9556 (25 percent) had cast a pre-poll vote by October 24. At the 2017 State election, just 10 percent of votes in Redcliffe were postal and 30 percent were pre-poll votes.

In Bancroft 28 percent (10,283) of registered voters plan to vote by post, compared with 11 percent in 2017. Three years ago, 26 percent of votes were cast at pre-polling booths, with 19 percent (6956) already cast this year.

Thirty percent (12,301) of Murrumba’s registered voters have applied for a postal vote for this year’s election, well up on the 11 percent who voted by post in 2017. Already, 5621 (13.7 percent) of Murrumba voters have pre-polled, compared with 28 percent for the whole pre-polling period three years ago.

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