More than 12,000 eager Wagga voters have already come forward and lodged their ballot papers for this weekend's federal election, with pre-polling proving popular for a variety of reasons.
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Pre-polling opened in Wagga last Monday as the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) opened more than 500 early voting stations across the country, giving Australians an extra two weeks prior to election day to cast their votes.
Since then 12,017 votes have been cast at Wagga polling stations.
The most popular day for pre-poll voting so far has been Tuesday, when 2440 votes were cast across three polling stations in Wagga, closely followed by Monday with 2383 local votes lodged.
Vince Baker was at the Trail Street voting centre on Wednesday morning and said he and his wife were voting early because they will be out of town this weekend.
He said the early voting option is a "great idea" and that the couple had done it in the past, finding the process nice and easy.
The pair were just two of dozens of people who filed through the voting centre throughout the morning, with the steady pace of voters keeping candidate volunteers busy as they handed out how-to-vote cards.
One woman at the voting centre decided to vote early because she lives out of town and it saved her having to drive into Wagga a second time this weekend.
Another man was voting early with his wife because he has an upcoming surgery and wanted to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19, with big crowds of people often anticipated on election day.
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Across the entire Riverina electorate, 25,400 pre-poll votes have been cast since last Monday across pre-poll centres in Cootamundra, Cowra, Forbes, Junee, Parkes, Temora, Wyalong, Young and Wagga.
This accounts for more than 20 per cent of the Riverina's registered voters, with 116,172 people registered to vote in the election.
Meanwhile, 8367 Riverina residents have applied for a postal vote and as of Wednesday 3476 valid postal votes had been received by the AEC.
Across the country nearly six million people have made the decision to vote early.
Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said the effect of the pandemic on AEC staffing, venues and people's personal circumstances means that more people have been considering early voting than previous elections.
"Early voting is going incredibly well and with around 550 centres open there are options available in the coming days for people who need to vote," he said.
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