Up to half of all votes for this year's Victorian election are expected to be cast before election day, with political parties adapting their campaigns to reach the maximum number of voters.
Victorian Electoral Commissioner (VEC) Warwick Gately said the commission was expecting 45–50 per cent of votes to be cast before polling booths open on November 24.
In 2014, 34 per cent of votes were made at early voting centres or by mail, he said.
There are already 340,000 more voters registered since 2014. Nearly 4.2 million Victorians are enrolled, 51.5 per cent of whom are women.
At a pre-election briefing, Mr Gately also revealed that 12.8 million ballot papers would be printed and 84,000 pencils would be needed.
Early voting opens on November 12.
Parties mobilise forces early
Both major parties are aware of the growing trend of people voting before the election.
Labor strategists said a million voters had been reached in the past six weeks through targeted social media campaigns.
Major announcements from Premier Daniel Andrews on a future suburban rail loop and free TAFE are central to this early campaign, they said.
"Because we know it takes ages to get to them [voters],'' a senior source said.
The Liberal Party also said it had been preparing for the early influx of votes and trying to mobilise its volunteer base to campaign and man pre-polling booths ahead of the traditional period.
Changes have also been made to allow the hundreds of thousands of early votes to be sorted on election day, prior to the close of booths.
A "restricted zone" at the tally hub at the Showgrounds is being established for early sorting to allow more votes to be counted from 6:00pm on election night.
This could be a drain on volunteer resources, sources said, with scrutineers needed at the Showgrounds rather than out campaigning.
The commission hopes to count 75 per cent of ballots on election night, which should be enough to give a clear result.
The VEC also said more counting than usual would be carried out on the Sunday after election day.
