If you hadn’t noticed, it’s election season, and the madness ends this Saturday (I hope). The promises are flying thick and fast, and now it’s your choice to decide.

This will be Australia’s biggest election with 710,000 more people on the electoral roll and 570 early voting centres none of which are local leaving residents baffled. The AEC website suggests Deniliquin or Echuca and interestingly enough for Koondrookians it suggests Swan Hill.

On Saturday there will be 7,000 polling places, 100,000 staff, 240,000 vests, 250,000 pencils, 250,000 lengths of string and the votes will take 40,000 transport routes in 90,000 transport containers using 5,000 rolls of tamper proof tape. In total there will be 80,000 ballot boxes and 1.4 million security seals.

Australian Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope said “A federal election is Australia’s great festival of democracy, and no matter what your circumstances are the Australian Electoral Commission has voting options available.”

“Today is an important reminder to all Australians who are eligible to vote to visit the AEC’s website, check your enrolment and make sure it is up to date.”

“Australia’s electoral roll is already sitting at an incredible 97.8 per cent of eligible voters enrolled, but we know the announcement of an election will be an incentive for new voters in particular to get enrolled.”

Good luck, I think we need it.

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 1 May 2025.