Democracy sausages wasted on 2 million Queenslanders who voted early

Almost two million Queensland voters have cast their ballots ahead of Saturday’s election and possibly dulling the impact of premier Steven Miles and opposition leader David Crisafulli’s final sprints to the polls.

Premier Steven Miles does some pre polling at Bundaberg Uniting Church, Bundaberg. Pics Adam Head

Almost two million Queensland voters have cast their ballots ahead of Saturday’s election and possibly dulling the impact of premier Steven Miles and opposition leader David Crisafulli’s final sprints to the polls.

Fresh data from the Electoral Commission of Queensland revealed that of the 3.68m enrolled voters across the state, 1.39m have voted at pre-poll booths, or early via alternate channels like post or telephone.

Electoral Commissioner Pat Vidgen reminded voters that preferential voting was compulsory at state elections.

“I want to remind electors that voting is compulsory, but for a state election you can vote anywhere in the state,” Mr Vidgen said.

“People who plan to vote on election day, can visit one of more than 1,000 polling booths across the state from 8am tomorrow until 6pm,” he said.

Leader of the LNP David Crisafulli with Russell Field LNP candidate for Capalaba pictured at a Pre-Polling at the Capalaba Central Shopping Centre Picture Liam Kidston

The ECQ expected just 45 per cent of voters to turn out on October 26, with 45 per cent likely to vote in the two weeks prior and the rest via other methods.

The biggest in-person early vote turnout was in the inner-city seat of McConnel, where 47,037 people got in early. However, the seat does include CBD booth at Brisbane Town Hall, which captures inner-city workers from outside the boundaries.

At-risk Labor seats rounded out the top five early poll locations, including the Mackay (6.7 per cent) where 28,202 has voted, 27,853 decided early in Caloundra (2.5 per cent), and just shy of 27,000 turned out in both Hervey Bay (2 per cent) and Cairns (5.6 per cent).

The lowest in-person votes were in the regional electorate of Gregory (LNP, 17.2 per cent), the Gold Coast seat of Bonney (LNP, 10.1 per cent) and the Brisbane southside district of Miller (ALP, 13.8 per cent), which each recorded 8,000 votes or fewer.

Almost half of the 690,000 postal votes requested by voters have already been returned, with the balance due before Tuesday, 5 November. Those who have yet to send back their vote can instead opt to vote a polling booth on Saturday.

Both major party leaders have been hitting the hustings on hard two days before the official election day. Mr Miles committed to a 36-electorate blitz through the southeast in just 36 hours, while Mr Crisafulli was also tracking to hit at least 30 seats by Friday night.

When asked this week whether early voting threatened the future of the democracy sausage – a snack considered a savory staple of election day – Mr Miles said tongue-in-cheek told reporters it was on his agenda.

“I think there should be democracy sausages at pre poll,” Mr Miles said.

“If elected, I commit to Queenslanders to work as very hard as I can to ensure that there are sausages at prep as well. I’m not sure how we will do it for postal votes”.