Finally after a month of electioneering, and several months of a phony campaign, Queenslanders probably go to the polls on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
I say probably as we know that increasingly many people have already voted.
I voted at pre-poll last Friday and that is common for me, as I normally am too busy working on election day to find the time to actually vote.
But it seems each election many others feel the same way and take advantage of the two-week period beforehand to vote if they can, without the crowds. and sadly without the democracy sausages beloved of election day.
That behaviour was super-charged in March when the Queensland council elections took place just as the pandemic was making its presence felt and is likely to be repeated again this time despite the Electoral Commission Queensland taking steps to make this what they call a "Covid safe election".
The message from the ECQ is simple: plan your vote, know where and when you'll vote, ensure you stay 1.5 metres apart, use hand sanitiser, and bring your own pen or pencil,
There are six candidates in the seat of Traeger and remember to vote one to six in order of your preference.
Of course the ECQ doesn't tell you who to vote and neither will the North West Star.
We would recommend you put the Greens and Clive Palmer in your bottom two as neither candidate lives in the electorate and neither could be bothered to answer the North West Star when we asked them a series of questions about election issues.
The other four (Robbie Katter, James Bambrick, Marnie Smith and Craig Scriven) did and you can see what they wrote here.
That article also talks about who they recommend you preference if you are following a party or candidate line.
You can also read what they said in the Cloncurry candidate debate here.
If you are voting on the day polling places will be open across the electorate from 8am to 6pm this Saturday.
Best of luck to all candidates and their supporters.
Now if they could just work out how to do digital voting safely, I'd be in,