Federal election results 2025: Wide Bay votes

Wide Bay election candidates have continued to fight for votes right to the deadline even with official figures showing about half of the electorate had its say ahead of election day.

LNP Wide Bay candidate Llew O'Brien and his wife Sharon on election day, May 3, 2025.

Wide Bay election candidates have continued to fight for votes right to the deadline even with official figures showing about half of the electorate had its say before election day.

Lines at the Gympie Senior Citizens’ Centre were still running out the door and past the Gympie Civic Centre in Saturday’s early afternoon.

Foot traffic at the booth was enough for three of the Wide Bay candidates – Greens’ Emma Buhse, independent Casey Iddon, and Family First’s Kenningale – to stay there well into the afternoon.

Across the Mary River, the Southside State School booth was the second-most popular choice for voters with two normal election booths at Pie Creek and Jones Hill not running.

Heavy pre-polling figures meant other regular election booths were feeling a downturn.

LNP Wide Bay candidate Llew O'Brien and his wife Sharon on election day, May 3, 2025.

“This booth is a lot quieter … than a few years ago,” Labor gauntlet volunteer Rae Gate said of the James Nash State School polling booth she was working at.

Wide Bay Family First candidate Kirsti Kenningale at the Gympie Senior Citizens’ Centre on Saturday.

LNP gauntlet volunteer Chris Anderson, who was handing out how-to-vote cards at the Southside booth, said the growing trend to pre-poll was having a knock-on effect in an unexpected way.

Wide Bay Greens candidate Emma Buhse at Gympie.

Mr Anderson said it was “taking away the funding opportunities of community groups and P & Cs” with the “social aspect” of election day decreasing.

Wide Bay independent Casey Iddon campaigning at Gympie.

“It’s an interesting side effect,” Mr Anderson said.

Dave Hetherington, Dan Stewart, Lyn Woodhead, and Chris Anderson at the May 3, 2025 election day gauntlet at Southside State School.

Australian Electoral Commission figures reveal 49,235 voters pre-polled across the Wide Bay, 39 per cent of the electorate’s 123,237 registered voters.

Leigh Reilly, Rae Gate, Chris Brock, and John Warren at the May 3, 2025 election day gauntlet at James Nash State School.

Another 19,056 voters applied for postal votes, of which 12,788 had been returned by May 3.

This meant more than 50 per cent of the Wide Bay’s voters were likely to have voted outside of the Saturday election day.

Mrs Kenningale said this election campaign, which was her first, had been “a ride” and it was potentially not the last regardless of the result, which initial exit polling suggested was favouring LNP incumbent Llew O’Brien.