6:18 – There was a big uptick in pre-poll voting yesterday (which is pretty standard). More than 5% of all voters cast their vote on Friday, which means that 25% of all enrolled voters cast a pre-poll vote. Remarkably this means that the total pre-poll share has jumped from 23.7% in 2020. It does look like postal votes has dropped, but we don’t yet have a final figure.
The big unknown factor is how many people vote on election day, but there have been reports of long queues. So it’s possible we could be looking at an elevated turnout.
6:00 – Polls have just closed across Queensland in the state’s council elections, along with two state by-elections in the Labor seats of Ipswich West and Inala.
I am most interesting in the City of Brisbane but I will briefly touch on other contests of interest tonight. The City of Brisbane is Australia’s biggest local council by a long shot, and in some ways it more resembles a small state than a larger council. The LNP has held the mayoralty for twenty years, the council for sixteen years, and have not lost a ward since 2000, but if the polls are to be believed they may go backwards tonight.