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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
National
Daniella White, Kathryn Lewis

Canberrans are voting early in record numbers - but not as many as expected

An ACT early voting centre. Picture: Karleen Minney

Chief Minister Andrew Barr says record early voting figures are slightly behind what the party was expecting to see weeks out from the election.

As of Sunday afternoon, a quarter of Canberrans had already cast their ballot.

Just under two weeks out from the October 17 election, the figure is edging closer to the total proportion of early votes cast in the lead up to the 2016 election, which sat at 34 per cent.

The ACT Electoral Commission confirmed as of Sunday afternoon 56,546 people had voted, 23,760 more ballots cast over the weekend.

Canberrans have been urged to vote early this election with Elections ACT hoping to see almost three-quarters of voters pre-poll.

Mr Barr said the figures were a little bit behind what he had been expecting.

"But school holidays have impacted clearly," he said.

"The numbers I heard over the weekend were well over 10,000 voting each day.

"We thought it might be closer to that every day.

"But I suspect somewhere between 60 and 70 per cent will probably now vote before the final day of voting.

"There is still a bit of an entrenched cultural thing in Australian elections about a polling day."

Opposition Leader Alistair Coe said there was still "a lot of water to go under the bridge" during the campaign despite the early voting.

"Obviously a lot of Canberrans have already exercised their democratic opportunity to vote early in this election," he said.

"However, the vast majority of Canberrans still haven't voted.

"Many Canberrans will be leaving it to the last day.

"We'll keep knocking on doors, we'll keep leaving flyers, we'll keep attending shopping centres, making telephone calls and making important commitments.

"The extended polling time frame does create some complexities for political parties, but importantly it does create some ease for voters."

Including the thousands of postal votes also received, an Elections ACT spokesman said about one quarter of Canberra's 300,000 registered voters had opted to get in early.

"Canberra voters have been welcoming of the COVID safety measures in place at voting venues," he said.

"Voters are following the directions of our hard-working polling officials and maintaining good social distancing, which is very pleasing to see."

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