There won't be many queues at polling places on election day this Saturday if the early pre-polling figures are any indication.
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In the three Illawarra electorates - Cunningham, Whitlam and Gilmore - pre-polling centres opened last Monday.
According to Australian Electoral Commission data, Illawarra residents very much like the idea of voting early.
In Gilmore - once returned postal votes were taken into account - 25,433 people have cast their vote since last Monday.
That's 25 per cent of the total number of enrolled voters in the electorate - meaning one in four people have already cast their vote.
In the 2019 election, the total number of pre-poll votes in Gilmore was 49,377.
Given statistics from previous elections shows the pre-poll numbers rise in the days before the election, there is a strong likelihood that this election's pre-polling numbers will be even higher.
Whitlam saw 20,747 pre-poll votes cast in the first week.
When postal votes are factored in, the total number of votes already cast in that electorate is 25,362 - which means one in five registered voters have already voted.
In Cunningham, voters seem willing to wait until election day.
Either that or they're leaving it until the last minute to pre-poll; in the 2019 election, the number of votes cast at some Cunningham pre-poll booths doubled in the last few days.
In the first week of pre-polling this year, 14,871 people voted early.
Combined with the 4816 postal votes, the number of early votes climbs to 19,687 - which is 16 per cent of the total number of registered voters in that seat.
The popularity of voting early comes as no surprise to the AEC.
"It's true there has been an increase in early voting over the last few elections," an AEC spokesperson said.
"In 2019, 31.59 per cent of turnout was at early voting centres, up from 22 per cent in 2016. We expect to see an increase in postal voting and early voting at this federal election."
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