Early votes roll in for Indi

HUNDREDS of Alpine Shire residents have been casting their votes early in the federal election, but thousands will still head to the polls on election day this Saturday, 3 May, to elect Indi's federal MP for the next three years. Bright's Masonic Hall in Hawthorn Lane, which is acting as an early voting centre within the shire, saw 1311 voters attend last week to lodge their ballots. Collectively the seven early voting centres throughout Indi saw 19,378 voters lodge their ballot papers last week, and all the early voting centres are opened this week, from 8.30am to 5.30pm today and tomorrow, and 8.30am to 6pm this Friday. The early voting centres are closed on election day. Polling places on Election Day voting, 3 May, will be open from 8am to 6pm in the Alpine Shire. Polling places will be located at: Bright and District Senior Citizens Centre; Wandiligong Public Hall; Porepunkah Primary School; Mt Beauty Community Centre; Harrietville Primary School; Dederang Recreation Reserve; Mudgegonga Community Hall; Myrtleford Senior Citizens Centre; as well as Gapsted Public Hall and Whorouly Public Hall. The nine candidates vying for your vote in the Indi federal election are: Independent incumbent federal MP Helen Haines; Mitch Bridges (Labor); James Trenery (Liberal); Athol Thomas (One Nation); Alysia Regan (The Greens); Tim Quilty (Libertarian); Michael White (Family First); Ben Howman (Legalise Cannabis); and Mark McFarlane (Independent). Dr Haines has held the Indi seat for two terms after taking over from fellow Independent Cathy McGowan in 2019. Ms McGowan famously beat former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella in a tight contest in 2013 and again at the 2016 election. In 2019 Dr Haines won 51.4 per cent of the vote over Liberal Party candidate Steve Martin, despite a 4.1pc swing to the Libs. She backed up in 2022 to beat Liberal candidate Ross Lyman after achieving a 7.55pc swing in her favour. Candidates' supporters enjoy the experience EARLY voting is something many people have appreciated. For Helen Roy, who voted at the Bright Masonic Hall last week, being able to vote early was very convenient. “On voting day, you might have something else going on and you can’t make it," she said. Volunteers for this year’s candidates manning the pre-poll station at the hall have noticed different foot-traffic patterns. "There's been a steady attendance of voters, with a wide variety of people, ages and abilities showing up,” Carol Norton-Smith said. "There’s two types of voters I've seen: the bees and the bee-liners. "One's more social and stops in to chat to all the party representatives present and the other goes straight through. "There was one really elderly lady earlier who was helped inside by her daughter. "It's very heartwarming to see elderly people making their way here to vote, I believe, for the benefit of their children and grandchildren. "While it was raining earlier, the volunteers from another party who had a marquee set up were very gracious and made room for the rest of us to take shelter in. "We may be from different places politically, but we all help each other out. "One lady from another camp was very generous; she went and brought back coffee and doughnuts for everyone the other day.” Volunteer John Robinson said he had found people very pleasant and "very good at recycling their how-to-vote papers”. Carole Price, who first started volunteering for her party this year, said she admired the effort her candidate was putting in to this campaign. "The candidate I'm assisting put a call out because he needed volunteers to help him at polling places,” she said. "I wanted to give him my time and effort because he's putting his own resources into this campaign and having a go, which I admire.”

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