FINAL UPDATE, 11pm: Sam’s final words and our final words
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It’s goodnight from us here at The News I write this final message wrapped in a blanket about to see my own breath as the heater has now kicked out here in the office. I think that’s my cue to leave...
But thanks for joining us in this year’s election blog it was a pleasure bringing you updates from around the region.
Before you head, our reporter Monique Preston has put together a story featuring what Sam had to say following his election win.
Have a read of it below.
UPDATE, 9.30pm: Other electorates called by ABC
Labor incumbent Lisa Chesters has been called as the winner of the electorate of Bendigo currently sitting at 11,451 votes, a seat she’s held since 2013. ABC projects she will take 56.1 per cent of the vote based on preference estimate.
Also retaining her seat again since first won in 2001, is Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Sussan Ley who currently sits at 31,480 votes. ABC projects she will take 65,3 per cent of the vote based on preference estimate.
Incumbent Independent Helen Haines has also returned for a third term to the seat of Indi with 25,454 votes so far. ABC projects she will take 59.1 per cent of the vote based on preference estimate.
Sam Birrell’s total count is 32,547 votes and the ABC projects he will take 64.8 per cent of the vote based on preference count.
UPDATE, 9.21pm: Sam thankful to return to seat
Federal Electorate District Council Nicholls branch president Lindsay Dann was in attendance at Sam’s celebrations tonight and spoke in high regard of Sam and tonight’s win.
“Three years ago it was an election on knife edge,” he said addressing the crowd.
“Here we are in 2025 and we already know we have smashed it in Nicholls.”
Sam thanked all those who voted for him.
“I’ll never take it for granted,” he said.
“I got in this to do a job and represent people from my community.”
He also thanked his family, staff, and those who worked tirelessly at polling booths.
UPDATE: 9.10pm Sam’s back in
We’re calling it (before Antony) - Sam Birrell will return as the federal member for Nicholls.
He’s celebrating with his team in Shepparton tonight.
The News’ Monique Preston is over there capturing the moment. More to come.
UPDATE: 8.57pm: Sam looks likely to return
Antony Green is now calling a plethora of electorates across the country. He is yet to call Nicholls however, based off current numbers, the Nationals incumbent Sam Birrell looks likely to return as the member.
He sits at 46.73 per cent of the counted vote of 66 out of 73 polling booths with a total of 27, 514 votes.
UPDATE: 8.45pm: ABC called Peter Dutton to lose seat of Dickson
The ABC’s Antony Green has called the seat of Dickson for Labor’s Ali France meaning Liberal leader Peter Dutton has lost his seat.
UPDATE: 8.30pm: Labor’s back baby (nationally)
ABC’s Antony Green has called it. The Australian Labor Party will continue in federal government.
UPDATE, 8.20pm: How are our other electorates faring?
A total of 54 out of 76 polling places have been counted in Indi for the first preference vote with the incumbent Independent Helen Haines on a 43.61 per cent lead at 13,544 votes followed by Liberal candidate James Trenery at 9,201 votes.
A total of 59 out of 87 voting booths have had their first preferences counted in Farrer with the incumbent Sussan Ley leading at 42.28 per cent with 13,802 votes.
Following behind is Independent Michelle Milthorpe at 5,906 votes.
Bendigo has had 38 out of 61 polling places for first preference count with the incumbent Lisa Chesters (Labor) leading with 32.34 per cent of the counted vote at 7701 followed closely by Andrew Lethlean of the Nationals with 7208.
UPDATE, 8.08pm: Inching closer....
We’re getting closer to the rest of Nicholls being counted with 54 of the 73 polling places now counted.
The incumbent Sam Birrell (Nationals) has gained a bit over double the amount of votes with a total of 13,867 taking 47.95 per cent of the counted vote so far.
Kim Travers (Labor) numbers have more than doubled, jumping to 6032 of the first preference vote receiving 20.86 per cent of the vote so far.
Aaron Tyrrell has reached 3610 votes followed by Shelby Eade (Greens) who has jumped to 2236 from 954 votes.
UPDATE, 7.40pm: Sam Birrell in the lead so far
In Nicholls 35 of 73 polling places have been returned. For first preference votes, the incumbent (Nationals) Sam Birrell has 6235 votes which is 48.67 per cent of the votes counted so far.
Following is Labor’s Kim Travers at 2391 votes at a total of 18.66 per cent of the vote.
One Nation’s Aaron Tyrrell is at 1764 votes, the Greens’ Shelby Eade is at 954, Glenn Floyd is at 655, Paul Bachelor is at 637 and Jeff Davy is at 176.
Of the 19 of 73 polling places returned, in the two candidate preferred count Sam Birrell has 75.23 per cent of the vote and Kim Travers has 24.77 per cent.
UPDATE, 7.28pm: Meanwhile... let’s take a look at our pre-polling numbers - is early voting really killing the democracy sausages?
Going back to an earlier question of whether the death of the democracy sausage will be due to early voting - we have some interesting numbers on the amount of early voting that’s been done in the past few weeks.
In total, 60,765 people have early voted across the Nicholls electorate which is higher in comparison with our surrounding electorates.
We’ve been hearing a lot in the past few days that early voting is much higher than the past election - and it’s true.
In total, there is an 18.4 per cent increase of early voters nationally.
When we look at the early votes across Nicholls and other surrounding electorates, there is a definite swing to more people voting early this year.
Nicholls had the highest increase of early voters with 21.3 per cent more this year. This is followed by Bendigo with a 17 per cent increase, Farrer with a 16.3 per cent increase and Indi with a smaller increase of 4.9 per cent.
UPDATE, 7.11pm: Some updates on our surrounding electorates
A total of 21 out of 76 polling places have been counted in Indi for the first preference vote with the incumbent Independent Helen Haines on a 41.76 per cent lead at 1,896 votes followed by Liberal candidate James Trenery at 1485.
A total of 17 out of 87 voting booths have had their first preferences counted in Farrer with the incumbent Sussan Ley leading at 47.72 per cent with 1913 votes.
This is followed up by Independent Michelle Milthorpe at 582 votes.
Bendigo has only had six out of 61 polling places for first preference count with the incumbent Lisa Chesters (Labor) leading with 712 votes followed by Andrew Lethlean of the Nationals with 606 votes.
UPDATE, 6.55pm: More votes coming in
First preference has been counted for some of our other smaller polling places like Lancaster, Bamawm, Tallarook and Lemnos and second preference for Torrumbarry and Bamawm.
Nationals candidate Sam Birrell is ahead with 635 votes followed by Labor’s Kim Travers at 191 votes and Aaron Tyrrell at 141 votes.
UPDATE, 6.40pm: First polling booth counted
Torrumbarry is the first polling place to come back with numbers which is seeing the incumbent and Nationals candidate Sam Birrell win the polling booth with 62 votes, Labor’s Kim Travers with 19, 17 votes for One Nation’s Aaron Tyrrell and votes under 10 for other candidates.
UPDATE, 6.13pm: While we wait... some sporting news
While the election has taken up most of our thoughts today, our photographer Rechelle Zammit has not long ago returned to the office after her day which has also included covering local sports.
Plenty of local residents squeezed in their voting before heading off to the football and netball today, so we thought we should give you a quick update on how the footballers of the Goulburn Valley League went in the senior football matches today.
Echuca was too good for Shepparton, with a 109-76 win; Seymour had a narrow 85-79 win over Shepparton United; Shepparton Swans was too good for Rochester, 52-43; Euroa took a 79-52 victory over Mooroopna; Kyabram toppled Mansfield, 121-101; and Benalla was victorious over Tatura, 111-46.
UPDATE, 5.55pm: What tonight will look like.
Polls are set to close at 6pm today and counting begins.
Mailed in votes will be counted in the days following as more ballot sheets come into the AEC.
However, it is more than likely that the postal votes won’t be a deciding figure for the electorate’s seat seeing as there are only 3,799 votes left to be returned to the AEC (as of this morning) out of the 10,206 postal voting applications sent out.
The AEC won’t declare a result tonight, but they do provide an indicative count for people, the media, analysts and candidates to get an idea on which way the results will go.
The AEC’s website said that it is common that some of the smaller polling places will see results from 7pm so we might see some results from around the region.
Though it is dependent on the amount of lead a candidate will have at the start of counting and whether preferences will be necessary to see who’s ahead, it could be likely that we will have an answer earlier tonight rather than later on who will take the seat of Nicholls.
UPDATE, 4.50pm: The voting experience in the eyes of a first-time voter
Earlier on the blog, you would have heard from News cadet journalist Pip Turton.
As well as covering her first election for the newspaper, she was also voting for the first time.
Though she went in feeling informed, it was quite the experience trying to figure out the long Senate form that, to be honest, most of us are still unsure about.
Read her experience below.
UPDATE, 4.25pm: A not-so-serious-update-but-very-nice-gesture in our newsroom
As we work away in the background getting ready to bring you some more stories, the News team were pleasantly surprised with a drop in from journalist Bree Harding who has baked some sweet treats for our team here.
It must be noted that the fondue effort from her is impressive, I fear my attempt at something similar would end in more of a disaster than a masterpiece...
UPDATE, 2.45pm: Early voting = death of the democracy sausage???
Huzzah, Jemma has finally found a democracy sausage!
Grantley West and Neville Cowie from the Stanhope Men’s Shed are working the grill for election day at the Stanhope Community Hall.
There is no line - but plenty of sausages still available for the stragglers who haven’t made it to the polling booths yet.
They said they have sold close to 150 sausages today but expressed concerns about the future of the democracy sausage on election days.
Mr Cowie said most people he talked to did early voting this year, and he can just imagine how many more people there would be at the polling booth today had there not been early voting.
Is early voting going to be the death of the democracy sausage?
UPDATE, 2.40pm: Voting can be a indecisive task - but not for John
One last update from Billie over in Violet Town.
80-year-old John Ramage said he is looking forward when deciding who to cast his vote for in this election.
John has always voted for the same party, and said he is concerned about the current governance of Labor.
“They all promise you something, but you have to go for the ones that you think will keep,” he said.
“It worries me the way that Labor are treating Australia, mainly because they’re just throwing money everywhere, and how are they going to pay it back?”
UPDATE, 2.25pm: A theory on early voting surge in Girgarre with no snag in sight
In the dairy farming hub of Girgarre, booth attendants Chris Smith and Joan Dickman believe the early surge of voters was driven by farmers eager to cast their ballots before heading back to milk their cows in the afternoon.
Once again, journalist Jemma Jones has been left hungry with no democracy sausage on offer at the polling station at Girgarre Primary School.
Just down the road, the Gargarro Botanic Gardens café is bustling with visitors — perhaps the classic democracy sausage is being replaced by a new tradition: the democracy decaf cappuccino.
UPDATE, 2.15pm: Forget the sausage - Violet Town are trying something a bit different
Billie has come back with a bit of an interesting story from the Violet Town voting booths.
Every very five years, Violet Town gets a new, independent phone book, containing contact details for local residents and community groups.
Kirsty Harris has taken it upon herself to ask the community members voting today if they would like to be added to the book.
“It’s part of a connecting community program that we have here,” she said.
“People with mobile phones generally aren’t in the White Pages any more.”
Kirsty said that rather than delivering the community a democracy sausage this year, she decided to focus on building up the phone book.
However, if all goes to plan, Violet Town residents can expect to see sausages at the next election.
UPDATE, 2pm: Some thoughts on the election from two generations of voters
Jemma is down in Kyabram and bumped into Laura Graetz who is one of the 1.5 million first time voters heading to the polls today.
She said while she was taken aback at how big the Senate vote paper was, it was not at stressful as she had expected it to be.
“I really thought it was going to be, like, a lot more hectic, lot more intense,” she said.
“Just felt like, oh yeah, this is chill.”
Miss Graetz said she had informed her vote by talking to the people around her, like her family and friends who had voted before.
“It's more just like hearing what other people are talking about, yeah, forming my vote based on that,” she said.
“I think there was a lot of just general (information), like the how to vote information.
“But there was less information about what the different parties were and what they stood for.”
UPDATE, 1.45pm: Hungry lines at Bourchier St Primary
Nicola back on the blog after Grace‘s stellar job of running the ship across the morning and into lunchtime.
Pip was just down at Bourchier Street Primary School, where long lines were building with a few voters even walking away.
One departing voter told Pip, “The wait is too long, and we’re hungry!” A lack of food at the booth hasn’t helped matters.
Representatives from the People’s Party, Nationals, Greens, and Labor are all in attendance. Labor candidate Kim Travers made a quick appearance after spending the morning in Avenel and Echuca.
One Greens supporter commented, “Early voting has ruined today’s occasion,” expressing disappointment at the reduced energy compared to past election days.
UPDATE, 1.30pm: Crickets, and three-legged dog at Violet Town
Down at the Violet Town Community House, there were no snags in sight, and only about 10 Indi voters there to fulfil their civic duties.
However, volunteers were in high spirits – Liberal thanks to pre-polling results at Benalla, and Labor thanks to the three-legged dog keeping them company.
Stay tuned for a picture of that later, courtesy of Billie Davern.
Maybe Violet Town voters got in early?
I’m signing off now, handing you back over to Nicola Ceccato who will take you through to the pointy end of the day.
Happy voting!
UPDATE, 1.10pm: Benalla voter shakes things up
Back to Benalla where Billie Davern spoke to Chris Gould, who voted early in his local electorate of Macnamara, but came along to the polls with his mother Linda Webb.
Linda said she was voting “to keep our people happy.”
Despite historically voting for the same party, Linda has made a change of heart this year.
“I’m actually wondering who to vote for. I have voted for one particular party for a long time, and I’m not so comfortable with that any more,” she said.
“But the thing that worries me about the independent is, who do they give their preferences to?”
Billie also spoke to Con Metaxiotis, who was joined by his son at the polls in Benalla. Con said he voted Labor because “I am a labourer.”
UPDATE, 1pm: Tongala’s polling centre put to shame by pub
In Tongala, Jemma Jones reports it’s busier across the street at the Tongala Hotel Motel than at the RSL Hall where the polls are taking place.
There are no lines, and no democracy sausages in sight.
Booth attendants have said there was a rush as the polls opened, a move they suspected was because the footy – Moama v Tongala – was set to roll into town.
A bus load of Moama supporters have filled out the hotel, putting attendance at Tongala’s polling centre to shame.
UPDATE, 12.50pm: No sausages at Guthrie St, attendant snags one anyway
Ray Pearson and Peter Shields have enjoyed each other’s company as long-term booth attendants at Guthrie Street Primary School over the past few years.
“Our banter is terrific and very intellectually challenging,” said Ray with a grin.
Peter reflected on the challenge of campaigning at the location.
“This has always been one of the hardest booths to sway away from Labor, but ever since I’ve been here on one of the hardest booths, The Nationals have seen better outcomes… not to toot my own horn.”
There are no sausages here this year, but that doesn’t stop Peter who, in this modern day and age, ordered a snag to be delivered.
Pip Turton reports it’s still laid back and slow paced at the polling booth.
UPDATE, 12.40pm: Orange dress turning heads at Benalla
Back over in Indi, an orange dress is catching eyes and turning heads at the entry gates of the Benalla P-12 College polling station.
The dress belonged to long-time district local Angus Howell’s late wife, Billie Davern reports.
Mr Howell was one of the initial Landcare facilitators in the ‘80s, and is now living in Benalla, and commits to regular volunteering at the aged care service Cooinda.
“He’s a very special man,” Robert Richardson, volunteer for independent Helen Haines, said.
“We have it (the dress) at the hub, and Angus is very proud and emotional about it.
“Because it’s orange, with a bit of purple, we thought, ‘why not use it as a bit of decoration, and sort of like a mascot’.”
UPDATE, 12.25pm: No sausages for Barooga, but support for students
Across the border in the Farrer electorate, Owen Sinclair reports there’s a line about fifteen people deep at the Barooga Public School polling place.
Although you can’t get your hands on a democracy sausage there, you will be able to grab a raffle ticket to support the school sending its students to Canberra.
School staff Mary Swoffer and Penny Jones are holding the fort at the raffle stall in the entrance to the school grounds, and pointed to pre-voting as the reason behind lower voter numbers than expected.
For mixed farmer Jamie Sheilds of Dubbo, accountability is what the next government – no matter who is elected – needs the most.
“I want the government to be accountable for its actions. If you make mistakes you make mistakes – fine. But you’ve got to be accountable for it,” he said.
This election, he decided to vote for a minor party rather than support either Labor or the Coalition.
“I voted for a minor party because I couldn’t bring myself to say they should have another vote without being accountable for their decision making,” he said.
“I think Pauline Hanson’s been accountable, with her stuff, but it’s hard to say at this point in time.”
UPDATE, 12.10pm: Democracy sausages in demand at Benalla
Heading back over to Billie Davern in Indi, democracy sausages have well and truly been a hit at the Benalla polling station.
Run by Julie Folan and Ian Arendshorst, the queue has only grown.
“It’s done really well. We’ve worked from 8.30am this morning, and we’ve already had to send off for another 100 sausages,” Julie said.
“Once people are finding out who it’s for – the Benalla Homelessness Response Group – they’re throwing in a little bit extra.”
Julie and Ian gave a special shoutout to Paul Retki from Benalla Bulk Meats for such generous support in providing the sausages for hungry voters.
UPDATE, 12pm: Sam Birrell casts vote at St Brendan’s Primary School
Journalist Jemma Jones was on ground at St Brendan’s Primary School, and ran into current Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell who voted this morning.
Mr Birrell said he’s “feeling good” about snatching the seat back after getting a “good response from the community”, but is looking forward to winding down a week of solid campaigning.
“It’s a tiring process for any candidate in an election campaign, and it does take a bit out of you – it’ll be nice when polls close today,” he said.
“I’ve just loved watching democracy happen. We’ve got people (at St Brendan’s) from Labor, Greens, and The Nationals all here, and you know, good friends enjoying each other’s company.
“I think that says a lot about regional Australia.”
He said he while he’s confident, he doesn’t want to take anything for granted.
“You want to work hard … it’s nice to be elected, but the people are saying, ‘we’re putting our faith in you, and we want you to work really hard and improve out lives and improve regional Australia’ – so I take that very seriously,” he said.
While Mr Birrell is “quietly confident” his vote can get up in Nicholls, his Coalition allegiance is looking to have the lower hand on a national scale, with Newspoll predicting Labor to have 52.5 per cent of the vote compared to the Coalition’s 47.5 per cent.
Mr Birrell said he’s worried if Coalition does form a minority government that they would have to negotiate “critical” and “radical” ideas for agriculture and food manufacturing to improve Nicholls.
“I’ll continue to do my best to advocate for that, but there are some people out there who just don’t understand what the engine room of Australia’s economy is, and are prepared to trash it,” he said.
“I’m fighting hard to win Nicholls, but hopefully, my Coalition colleagues can win other seats around Australia, so we don’t end up in that terrible economic position that we’d be in.”
UPDATE, 11.55am: Kim Travers stops by Cobram
While at the Cobram polling place, Owen Sinclair spoke to Labor candidate Kim Travers, who got ahead of the curve and cast her vote early, but dropped by to hand out how-to-vote cards.
She said the cost of living was right up there with voters’ main concerns this election.
“You can break it down for people, you can find out about the utility bills they’ve been talking about, the students have definitely been talking about the cost of study, lots of people have been talking about jobs,” Ms Travers said.
“We have had quite a bit of feedback about housing, and the need for good rent assistance and new public housing, but also the build.
“A lot of stuff that Labor has suggested and promised, and already worked on, is resonating very well.”
UPDATE, 11.40am: Votes shaping the future at Guthrie Street Primary School
Pip Turton is on the ground at sunny Guthrie Street Primary School, where she reports entering the polling booth, photos of children are displayed to remind people their vote will shape the future for the next generation.
UPDATE, 11.30am: Long line awaits voters at St Brendan’s Primary School
Current Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell has just cast his vote at St Brendan’s Primary School, and to put yourself in his shoes, the line took about 7 minutes to get through.
Journalist Jemma Jones reports there are unfortunately no democracy sausages to reward the wait times.
UPDATE, 11.20am: Nice feel in Indi as crowds grow at Benalla
Journalist Billie Davern has headed across to check on our neighbours in the Indi electorate, where crowds are growing at Benalla P-12 College.
An AEC supervisor said the day “started quiet, but it’s gotten very busy” and “there’s a nice feel in the air”.
UPDATE, 11.05am: Seymour is serving sausages, baked goods, and no queues
Simon Ruppert is now on the ground at the Seymour polling place, the Anglican Parish Church, where there are currently no queues.
Those arriving are being well fed with not only democracy sausages, but also a range of homemade baked goods, sauces and preserves made by members of the church.
Simon also spoke with voter Jeff Morrison, who said that while he’s disappointed in the Victorian Labor Party, which he feels is not doing enough to keep the public safe from crime, he chose to vote for Federal Labor because he sees them as the lesser of two evils.
“The opposition is promising a lot of things, but there's no plan,” he said.
Jeff said he was disappointed that neither Labor nor the Coalition have a plan to eliminate tax breaks for property investors.
“That's what's making everything so expensive for the young people,” he said.
“But they won't change anything as (Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton) are both millionaires, and they're both property investors.”
UPDATE, 10.55am: Kialla has its priorities straight
The News Editor Christine Anderson is down at the Kialla Central Primary School, where the cake stall and sausage sizzle line is nearly longer than the voting one.
If you want to grab some afternoon tea, you better get there quick.
UPDATE, 10.50am: Game on, Nicholls
While down at the polling booth fulfilling your civic duty, why not join in on our Election Day Bingo? After all, you could win a mystery prize.
The rules are simple:
1. Complete the challenges - three in a row, vertically or horizontally.
2. Send us proof through Facebook messenger.
The first to send proof of bingo will win, with the winner announced on our socials on Monday at 11am.
UPDATE, 10.20am: No queues in Avenel, voters well fed
Simon Ruppert has made his way to Avenel, where he reports no queues at the polling place, but can confirm a sausage sizzle.
Christine Hyde, Sam Hull, Tahlia Lambert and Hunter Friedrich are on hand to keep voters well fed.
He also had a chat with Ann Spencer, who said the most important issues for her were addressing climate change and gender violence, and her daughter Mackenzie agreed.
“I feel like gender violence is quite a bad epidemic in Australia,” Mackenzie said.
“Climate sustainability, especially within agriculture, is another issue. Countries like ours need to do better.
“And also the housing crisis. Especially for myself and other young people, it's quite an issue that we're facing.
“How do you fix it? Someone needs to come in and sort that out.”
UPDATE, 10.15am: No democracy sausages in sight at Cobram
Journalist Owen Sinclair is at the Cobram polling booth, where he reports a conspicuous absence of any democracy sausages.
Nonetheless, it’s a crisp autumn morning and there’s a contingent of volunteers for the National Party and Family First parties handing out how-to-vote cards outside the Cobram Civic Centre.
Volunteers for the ALP, Trumpet of Patriots and One Nation are nowhere in sight.
There’s a rumour going around of democracy sausages arriving at lunchtime, but for now, things are reasonably quiet.
Owen had a chat with Hagen Skinner, a 30-year-old business owner from Cobram, who said his main concerns were around immigration, the housing crisis and Australian manufacturing.
“There’s not enough houses for everyone, and bringing more people in isn’t going to help that at all,” he said.
“We sold [our house] a couple of years ago and are still trying to get back in again. It’s near impossible.”
He said he couldn’t see much difference between the political parties this election.
“I feel like they’re all one and the same, really. No-one’s really trying to stand out as different or do something good,” he said.
UPDATE, 9.50am: Nagambie gets in early
Hi everyone, Grace Carter here to take over the blog for the next couple of hours.
Simon Ruppert is down in Nagambie, and it’s fair to say the election atmosphere is well and truly alive, with people getting in early to cast their vote.
In breaking news, we’ve also had our first confirmed sighting of where you can snag a democracy sausage.
It's a family affair in Nagambie where Peter, Jill and David Branagan are serving up the delicacy.
They also have beanies for sale, which could be a money spinner on a cold morning like today.
Simon also had a chat to voter Julie Anne Smith, who said she doesn’t align with any one party, and decides who to vote for based on the policies that affect her and the area she lives.
"What's important to me, I think is they're not breaking their promises,“ she said.
“We hear so much about, ‘we're going to do this, we're going to do that’. They get in, and they change their mind. It doesn't work well for voters.
“You think you're voting for something, and you get something else.”
UPDATE, 9am: The day for democracy has arrived
Good morning to the Nicholls electorate - today’s the day. That’s right, it’s time to let democracy manifest and put pen to paper to vote for our next federal member and government.
Nicola Ceccato here kicking off the blog, I will be passing the baton over to Grace Carter for the morning updates, and I’ll be back to join you at 12.30pm to go through the afternoon and the big count later this evening.
McPherson Media Group’s journalists will be roaming around the region’s polling booths today, undergoing what I have dubbed the reporter’s version of rejection therapy - community vox pops.
Our journalists are out and about asking you guys - the voters, what you think about this year’s election, your thoughts on the abundance/lack of democracy sausages and who you’re planning to vote for.
So if you see them, don’t be shy, they don’t bite - they just want to hear what you have to say.
We’ll also be keeping you up to date with everything happening around the region today from chats with candidates, which booths are the busiest, where the best snags are being served up and, of course, the big count later this evening.
We’ll also be keeping an eye out on our surrounding electorates across the region and what their count looks like towards the end of the day.
Now this is rolling coverage, and it wouldn’t be just that without our audience.
Have any photos from the day? Snapped a cute picture of your dog at the booths? Found something funny to share with us?
Send it in to editor@sheppnews.com.au - we’d love to hear from you!
In the meantime not sure where to vote? Who to vote for? Don’t stress, we got you covered. Check out our free to access guide below on where to find your closest polling booth plus our list on all our profiles for each of the candidates below.