Long lines form at pre-poll centres as keen voters cast early ballots

Intimidatingly long lines have formed at pre-polling stations across the country as thousands of people get their election votes in early.

Long lines have formed at pre-polling stations across the country as voters start to cast their ballots.

Election day will kick off at 8am on May 21, when local schools, community halls and churches will transform into polling centres until 6pm.

But keen balloters are flocking to early voting centres following their opening on Monday, with the election now only 12 days away.

Lines were long at pre-polling booths in Brisbane as the early-ballot period begun. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Considerable queues were spotted in Brisbane, while Treasurer Josh Frydenberg attended a pre-poll in Hawthorn as he continued his well-documented clash with independent Dr Monique Ryan for the Kooyong seat.

Fellow party member Tim Wilson, also locked in a contest for a once-certain Liberal seat, was stationed at an early voting centre in the Goldstein electorate and declared the battle against teal independent Zoe Daniel had officially begun.

“Bring. It. On,” he said in a tweet.

People keen to get their votes in early braved the woolly weather. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

The early-voting period is designed for those who cannot attend polling centres on election day but a significant number of Australians are expected to have their minds made up in advance.

The number of early voters is expected to exceed the 40 per cent mark reached in the lead-up to the 2019 election, when the Liberal Party defied the odds to retain a lower-house majority.

“Early voting has been tracking up and up,” Electoral Commission spokesman Evan Ekin-Smith recently told 3AW radio.

“It tends to start a little bit softly and then get up and up. Those final two days of early voting tend to be the biggest by a country mile.”

It’s expected almost half of all Australian voters are set to cast their ballots early in 2022.

Those who are unable to vote on election day can attend a local pre-polling centre in the lead-up to May 21 or alternatively cast a postal ballot.

Postal ballot packs must be requested via aec.gov.au before May 18.