30 March, 2024
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Slow vote count tipped for Victoria election

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The results of Victoria’s state election could be delayed, with the Victorian Electoral Commission bracing for a slower than usual vote count.

VEC director of communications Sue Lang said four million Victorians were enrolled to vote and about half had cast their ballots early, which could pose problems.

“The issue that that creates for us a little bit is that because we’ve taken so many votes in the early voting centres, where they need to be counted, we will have 1700 voting centres tomorrow that will be staffed to count 2 million votes,” Ms Lang told ABC radio on Friday morning.

“But we have 155 early voting centres who need to count 2 million votes. So that might actually slow the count for us on Saturday night.”

The VEC is aiming to count 75 per cent of votes over the weekend, absentee votes will then be sorted to their correct districts and then counted next week.

About 600,000 postal votes have been sent out however only 270,000 have been returned.

Postal votes must be mailed in before 6pm on Saturday night to be eligible.

Ms Lang said the VEC is not permitted to begin counting votes until 6pm on Saturday.

Victoria’s major parties left voters little more than 48 hours to crunch the numbers on their policy costings before polls close on election day.

Labor’s financial statement, released on Thursday, revealed the party forecasts a budget surplus of $1 billion for the 2025/26 financial year – $135 million more than foreshadowed in the pre-election budget update.

However, the coalition’s budget impact statement projects under its plan the state will return to a modest surplus of $2.1b by 2024/25, a full financial year ahead of Labor.

In total, Labor’s election initiatives tally $8.24b, including $1.6b on jobs, $4b on health, $2b on transport, $934m on education and $275m on fairness.

The coalition likewise committed to funding its 94 promises with financial implications by dipping into continency cash instead of new taxes.

The coalition’s election commitments would cost about $28b.

Their budget document outlines the Liberal-Nationals would take $10.2b from Victoria’s Future Fund to help pay down the state’s mounting debt quicker, saving $775m in interest payments over the forward estimates.

Premier Daniel Andrews broke with tradition to cast his ballot early, posting a picture of himself voting alongside wife Catherine and two of his children.

“Like so many other Victorians, we’ve got a few things happening on Saturday so we voted early and on the way to somewhere else,” he tweeted on Thursday evening.

– AAP

The post Slow vote count tipped for Victoria election appeared first on The New Daily.

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