Thousands of Tasmanians have already cast their votes in the Huon and Rosevear LegCo elections

Thousands of votes have already been submitted, a week out from polling day, in two Tasmanian Legislative Council elections.

• Delay to Upper House elections condemned
• Legislative Council elections for Huon and Rosevears deferred

THE race for the Legislative Council seats of Huon and Rosevears is hotting up with thousands of votes already submitted.

With a week until polling day, more than 13,500 completed postal and 2000 pre-poll votes had been received on Friday.

A total of 22,352 postal vote applications had been lodged by electors for the elections as of Friday — four times the average number received at Legislative Council elections.

At the last Huon and Rosevears elections in 2014 about 3500 electors applied for a postal vote and 3300 voted at a pre-poll centre.

Political analyst Kevin Bonham said the amount of votes already submitted was “a heck of a lot”.

“I would overwhelmingly put it down to a combination of an increased emphasis on pre-poll voting, and people preferring to vote at home and not going out,” he said.

“Electoral commissions around the country have encouraged against voting at booths given the pandemic, but the numbers seen in Huon and Rosevears are monstrous.

“It will be interesting to see what effect it has on the count. Electoral officers will certainly have a massive amount to tally.”

Huon Valley acting mayor Sally Doyle said a reason for the high return of votes could highlight a greater community political interest amid current global events.

“I think people have had to stop and take stock of what’s happening and I suppose this year the election is more important to them,” she said.

“People have also been at home a lot more and possibly seen a lot more about what’s making the news. I think any election, local, state or federal, would see an increased interest at the moment.”