Minds made up: thousands cast an early vote at pre-poll

As of Tuesday, more than 7600 people - or about 7 per cent of the electorate - had visited one of the region's pre-polling booths, and that number is expected to rise rapidly to more than 30 per cent by election day on May 18.

In a week, almost 3200 people visited the Armidale booth, while Tamworth has averaged almost 1000 voters a day.

Both New England MP Barnaby Joyce and independent Adam Blakester said it was time to look at the rules around pre-polling, which many claim goes on for far too long.

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Mr Joyce is open to a discussion about the length of the pre-polling, and also flagged political-advertisement exclusion zones around booths, which would improve the voter experience.

"If we all agreed [to ban advertising and handouts at booths] it would completely change the intensity of election," Mr Joyce said.

Mr Blakester said along with the length of pre-polling, digital voting had to be considered.

"With the technology at our disposal, we are able to move massive sums of money securely, but we are still using this 19^th century system to vote," he said.

Mr Blakester has been popping in to pre-polling booths whenever possible, but has been focusing more on "forums and meet-and-greet events".

"I'm not trying to convince anyone in 30 seconds," Mr Blakester said.

"I'm after that more substantial discussion, so we can really talk about the issues."

In New England, just under one in three people cast their vote before election day. This year, almost 4300 people have requested postal votes.

Tenterfield, Inverell and Glen Innes will open early voting on Monday.

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