According to the ABC …
“A record 542,141 votes were cast in the first day of early voting on Tuesday, smashing the previous 2022 record of about 314,346 as the trend continues of more Australians heading to the ballot box before the official polling day.”

This is up 72% on first day early voting in the 2022 election. In Western Australia, 59,000 people voted on the 1st day, an increase of 115% on the 2022 election.

Is this trend of early voting a good thing? Commentator Chris Berg opinions:
Early voting is a strategic move available to voters to realign political incentives, increase the information quality of election campaigns, reduce the appeal of policy-on-the-run for campaigners, and to discipline their own thinking about the performance of political parties throughout the full parliamentary term.

Charles Richardson (The World is not Enough Blog) points out some negative effects of early voting:
… it's important to note the downside as well. While early voting may eventually change political behavior, until it does, those who vote early are making their decision with incomplete information. It's also bad for ballot security – the extra fortnight multiplies the opportunities for ballot papers to go missing or be tampered with – and the need to staff pre-poll centers imposes a disproportionate burden on minor parties and independents. More intangibly, there's a sense that people getting together to vote at the same time is an important part of the democratic experience, and that without it something has been lost.

It seems the option for early voting is here to stay, and the numbers of those doing so is increasing.

What do you think? Good, bad or neutral?

Hi Aries54,

I voted yesterday, can't see any problem. With Dud Dutton's $21 billon spend announced today on more "bombs" for the military, I think I made the right choice.

If a Federal Election were held now the ALP would be returned to Government with an increased majority with the ALP on 55.5% (up 1% point from a week ago) ahead of the L-NP Coalition on 44.5% (down 1%) on a two-party preferred basis, the latest Roy Morgan survey finds (22/04/2025).

Support for the Greens was unchanged at a six-month high of 14.5% (helping boost the Albanese Government’s two-party preferred result) and support for One Nation was unchanged at 6%. Support for Clive Palmer’s new ‘Trumpet of Patriots’ Party was at 0.5% this week, down 0.5% from a week ago.

If this carries through to May 3rd, Dud Dutton could be heading for a total wipeout

Unless there are pressing reasons - health, absence on the day for example, voting should occur on the day designated.

People who vote before the campaign is over, when they don't really have to, are not serious: they vote the same way every election, or they don't give a toss.

The news that about half of voters are so lackadaisical is just one more example of how disinterested and dopy they are. They get what they deserve.

Retired Labor Senator, Stephen Conroy, believes that politicians are uncomfortable with early voting because they have to be more “organised” earlier. He seems to think that early voting means that people want change.

But, that's just another opinion and, like arseholes, everyone has one. We probably waste too much time and effort expressing opinions when all we get is a periodic vote for the same useless politicians who are not very interested in what we think anyway.

Dear Aries,

«Early voting is a strategic move available to voters to realign political incentives»

This is not the reason why voters vote early: if any do, then they are only a handful. The most common reasons are:

1) The officially allowed reasons (but those using them honestly are a minority).
2) To get that filthy task over with quickly and avoid the anxiety about forgetting about it and getting in trouble.
3) To avoid the humiliation of having to stand in queue while being harassed by political activists as one stands helplessly in the line.
4) To be able to take enough time to study and consider the options, then mark the ballot papers correctly and intelligently without feeling pressured to let the next person in ASAP.
5) To protest the nuisance of election campaigns, including the intrusion of unstoppable junk-mail, much of it is unwholesomely negative about smearing others: If politicians understood that their attack on the public's peace and the mocking of their intelligence, taking them for idiots, does not help them one iota and no last-minute bribe-attempts could possibly help them, then perhaps they will stop their harassment.

Every party and independent has a website with their principles and long-term policies. It is quite impossible to find within a minute or so which parties are contending, especially for the upper-house, then learn properly what they stand for and do justice to democracy.

As a postal voter I have the vantage of getting the list of contending parties early, then go online and read and rank their principles and policies. Once getting my ballot-papers, I make a table of all parties and how they stand on the issues that are important to me - I give them a mark on each issue, then add the marks up and order my preferences accordingly. This time around, this process took me about five hours, plus I used my computer and printer to create the marks-table, something one cannot do in a crowded busy voting station. I already posted my vote on Tuesday, so no last-minute bribing can affect it.