In a national day for democracy sausages, P&C cake stalls, how-to-vote pamphlets and footsore campaign spruikers in colourful T-shirts, the country observed its customary rituals of going to the polls on Election Day 2022.
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For those who failed to pre-poll, queues began forming early. Thousands took advantage of the new COVID-19 secure voting capability expanded just 48 hours before polling day.
Images of local members arriving in their electorates to formally drop their votes has filled the media, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison using his final press conference to confirm a vessel trying to illegally enter Australia from Sri Lanka has been intercepted.
Beginning his day in the Liberal-held seat of Higgins in Victoria, Labor leader Anthony Albanese delivered what many believe was the most impassioned and impressive speech of the past six weeks.
There was a late robocall campaign by the Advance Australia party, with a less than subtle sledge on what the robocallers regarded bias in Canberra Times reporting. Independent Senate candidate David Pocock called it out, while his incumbent rival Senator Zed Seselja denied all knowledge.
Much interest has centred on the marginal seat of Eden-Monaro, which stretches west and south of the ACT, where Kirsty McBain won the seat back for Labor in a recent by-election. But an equally important question on the day was what sauce voters wanted on their democracy sausage.
They arrived on foot, by car and in country Inverell on horseback, where local Inverell Times photographer Jacinta Dickens snapped a classic picture of Gabby Realpe arriving at the local polling booth on her steed, Dash.
Key local issues were at the forefront of voters' minds around the country and as always, the pre-election cash splash on local projects has been extraordinary in its largesse.
At Goondiwindi, the much-needed $5 million intermodal freight terminal has been the subject of vote-grabbing, with the Liberal-Nationals only pledging their half provided local member David Littleproud falls over the line.
Water and hospitals are always big winners in the far north of NSW, where the incumbent National Barnaby Joyce found $1.3 billion for a new Dungowan Dam in New England.
And offering proof the country is surely going to the dogs, the same Deputy PM pledged $1.1 million for a new pound at Inverell.
On the flipside, in a surprising admission, Andrew Constance, the high profile aspirant member for Gilmore, on the NSW South Coast said he will take a detox from politics if he fails to win the hotly contested seat for the Liberals.
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