Eight on May ballot in New England for biggest federal election ever

About 113,465 people will cast a ballot in the Division of New England.

Covering an area from the Queensland border in the north all the way to Scone in the south, the electorate is the state's third largest electorate by area and among the biggest in Australia, spanning 66,394 kilometres.

Despite its huge size, the electorate has almost the same population as the state's 47 other federal divisions, based on borders set by the Australian Electoral Commission.

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A majority of electors are women, 58,230, with 55,184 men and 51 voters of unknown or undetermined gender. Between 95 per cent and 98 per cent of the eligible population of the area are enrolled to vote this year.

The Division of New England has grown by 1,572 people since the 2019 election, with the electorate keeping the same borders since 2016.

A record 17.2 million Australians are enrolled to vote in the 2022 federal election, 96.8 per cent of the eligible population.

But if recent elections are anything to go by, most of the areas voters may choose to cast a ballot long before election day.

Pre-poll voting starts in one week, on May 9.

About one-in-three votes were cast before election day at the last federal election, with about 8 per cent cast by post.

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It's a number number that has been going up for years, but election day aversion was super-charged by the COVID-19 pandemic, with voters left worried about catching the virus as they delivered their ballot.

At the most recent state election, in South Australia, about one-in-five voters cast a ballot in person before election day, and another 15 per cent voted through the post.

The Australian Electoral Commission has strongly encouraged voters to turn up, if at all possible.

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said "the election is an in-person event".

"People are attending concerts, sporting events and cafes - most voters will come to a polling place so we don't need the mass distribution of postal votes..." he said.

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"Our message couldn't be clearer - vote in person if you can, apply for a postal vote through us if you need one."

The Australian Electoral Commission will hire 100,000 people or so to count and recount the millions of ballots cast nation-wide. The election will create 32,000 jobs in NSW alone.

Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce will face 7 challengers in his bid for a fourth term as member for New England, at his fifth election for the lower house seat.

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