Long queues of up to 80-minutes at some polling stations in Melbourne and Sydney
Voters have reported long queues at some polling stations in Melbourne and Sydney today, with the longest queue recorded by the AEC taking about 80 minutes.
Guardian Australia’s Alan Vaarwerk was in line for over an hour in Collingwood, Melbourne, this morning. “It was even longer after I left,” he said.
AEC spokesperson Evan Ekin-Smyth said it tracked queues with markers throughout election day.
The longest that I saw in the reported data that we have was about 80 minutes.
That is obviously much longer than you would like it to be.
Melbourne’s Docklands had one venue with a significant queue. Ekin-Smyth said the queue was down to 20 minutes after additional AEC staff were deployed.
“I’ve spoken to one of the staff members there who reported that while there was a queue, there did not seem to be a level of angst among the voters present,” he said.
Across 7000 polling stations, he said, most were seeing little wait time, if any at all.
“It is hard to say exactly why those venues have seen bigger queues, because we did forecasts … But you can never fully accurately predict voter behaviour,” Ekin-Smyth said.
He explained CBD locations could be tricky: “On polling day, most of the venues around the nation are schools or community halls or church halls. They’re in short supply in a CBD.”
Even after half the voting population lodged early votes, the AEC “still needed eight to 9 million people to come through the doors today,” he said. “That’s still massive.”
We work really hard on minimising queues where we can – we’ve been assisted in this endeavour over many years by Deakin university. Looking at table loadings, venue setups, forecast management and mini-queues.
There is no election in the world without queues. It’s part of any in-person, large scale process.
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\n It is unclear how this will translate into seats given the increase in the number of electorates that are three-way contests, rather than coming down to a fight between Labor and the Coalition. Pollster Shaun Ratcliff told Guardian Australia that the latest polls show the Coalition “going backwards” in a selection of key seats he has been tracking, after initial polls in February had the Coalition ahead.
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You can find more granular breakdowns of the polls, including by demography, on our tracking page.
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Somewhat further afield, Australians have already voted, Emily Wind reports:
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In the leadup to election day, Australians have cast their ballots in a number of remote locations and even from overseas – but none as far south as the 100-odd expeditioners currently working in Antarctica.
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Expeditioners working at Australia’s Antarctic and sub-Antarctic stations were able to cast their vote by telephone – a process typically reserved for voters who are blind or have low vision – with no physical ballot booth setup this year.
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Voting opened on 22 April, with expeditioners able to vote early or on election day. But, unlike others, they won’t be fined if they do not vote, according to the Australian Electoral Commission.
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The AEC says Australians travelling to work in Antarctica need to register as an Antarctic elector before leaving the country – with “Antarctic” including the Australian Antarctic Territory, the Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Macquarie Island, and a ship at sea in transit to or from Antarctica.
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Arrangements were put in place for expeditioners on the RSV Nuyina in case it arrived back later than scheduled (on 2 May, the day before the election).
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It is just past 8am here in Sydney, and the polling booths are officially open!
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Voters can lodge their ballots between 8am to 6pm today.
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For a refresher on when, where and how to vote, here is our 2025 voting guide with everything you need to know.
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queue to vote in Australia’s general election at a polling station in the suburb of Marrickville in Sydney on 3 May, 2025.”,”caption”:”People queue to vote in Australia’s general election at a polling station in the suburb of Marrickville in Sydney on 3 May, 2025. “,”credit”:”Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1746223875000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”18.11 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1746225975000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”18.46 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1746224127000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”18.15 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”18.15″,”title”:”Polls open in eastern states”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Sat 3 May 2025 03.24 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Fri 2 May 2025 18.09 EDT”}],”filterKeyEvents”:false,”id”:”key-events-carousel-mobile”,”absoluteServerTimes”:false,”renderingTarget”:”Web”}”>
Key events
Krishani Dhanji
Good evening,
Krishani Dhanji with you here – thanks to Caitlin Cassidy and our fabulous team for bringing you all the day’s coverage.
I’ll spare you my “wow, we’re finally here” sentiment and just get straight into it.
There’s no doubt, it’s going to be a big night.
With that, I will place you into the extremely capable hands of Krishani Dhanji. She’ll be with you for the rest of the (long) evening, as the votes roll in. Have a happy election night, all.
Henry Belot
‘This is not unusual’: Greens accuse Labor of ‘scare campaign’ over how-to-vote cards in marginal Melbourne seats
The Greens have accused Labor of mounting an election day “scare campaign” about “open tickets” in the Melbourne electorates of Menzies and Deakin.
As my colleague Josh Butler told you a few moments ago, Labor is furious that some pamphlets being handed out by volunteers in these seats are not directing people to preference Labor higher than the Liberals. Labor claims this is “paving the way” for Liberal members to be re-elected.
How-to-vote cards often (but don’t always) recommend how people should vote. While the Greens would recommend voters put a number 1 next to their candidate, usually they would recommend voters also preference Labor higher than the Coalition.
A Greens spokesperson said the Greens were preferencing Labor ahead of the Liberals in every seat across the country. They said this was made clear on official how-to-vote cards that were online and being shared in the two electorates.
The spokesperson did acknowledge, however, that some local campaigners were issuing a separate “Vote 1 Greens” leaflet in some locations:
On a few booths in Deakin and Menzies, the local group are also handing out a Vote 1 Greens leaflet, just like the independent and teal candidates do and like Labor is doing in Macnamara. This is not unusual; it happens every election, and Labor is trying to create a scare campaign.
The Greens continue to recommend people vote 1 Greens and preference Labor ahead of Liberals to keep Dutton out.
Photos: ‘Corflute wars’ and protesters cause scene at Kooyong in Melbourne’s east
We have more images rolling in from voting day, including eclectic scenes in the electorate of Kooyong in Melbourne’s east, which has been in the middle of the so-called “corflute wars”.
Here, a corflute depicts Peter Dutton as Donald Trump in the crossover I hoped never to see.
Protesters have also been out and about, including this individual who described our compulsory voting system as “coercion”. (Australia has consistently ranked among the top 20 nations in the world democratic index.)
GIO Stadium to broadcast election during Brumbies and Waratahs match
Election night can be difficult for politics nerds who are also sports lovers. (I will be dual-screening the Collingwood game with the news this evening.)
Fortunately, Brumbies fans heading to GIO Stadium on Saturday night as the ACT face the NSW Waratahs won’t have to worry – coverage of the federal election will be showing before and during the event.
In a statement, the Brumbies described it as “Canberra’s biggest election watch party”, with vote counts to beam live from 7pm next to the south stand.
There will also be a couple of live crosses to election coverage on the big screen at half-time.
The Brumbies’ general manager, Gavin Hunt, said given the big match fell on election night, the team was “keen to ensure members and fans are able to keep track of the election results without missing the game, should they wish to”.
The MCG and SCG, take notes, guys.
Albanese says ‘it’s now up to the people’ as Dutton has faith ‘quiet Australians’ will support Coalition
Earlier, we brought you images of Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton casting their ballots this afternoon as the hours dwindle until polls close.
The PM started his day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before heading to Sydney and reuniting with his beloved hound, Toto.
He was surrounded by a media pack and locals at Marrickville west public school in his electorate of Grayndler before reaching the solitude of the voting booth. He took his place next to his son, Nathan, and spent less than a minute filling the paper.
Asked whether he would win, Albanese replied: “Marrickville west, this is my hood”.
It’s now up to the people. We will wait and see what the outcome is. We should be proud we live in a vibrant democracy and everyone gets one vote, one value.
Meanwhile, the opposition leader told reporters he had faith “quiet Australians” would come out today to support the Coalition, and was “looking forward” to the outcome.
At the end of a gruelling campaign, in which he visited 52 electorates, Dutton was supported by wife Kirilly and children Tom, Harry and Bec as he voted at Albany Creek state school in Brisbane’s north.
– with AAP
Josh Butler
Labor left fuming after Greens run ‘open ticket’ in two ultra-marginal Victorian seats
Labor is furious that the Greens are running an “open ticket” on their how-to-vote cards in the ultra-marginal Victorian seats, Menzies and Deakin, claiming the decision was “paving the way” for Liberal members to be re-elected.
How-to-vote cards often (but don’t always) recommend how people should vote. While the Greens would recommend voters put a number 1 next to their candidate, usually they would recommend voters also preference Labor higher than the Coalition.
Of course, voters can vote however they want, and don’t have to follow the cards, but some people do follow the recommendations. In the very tight Deakin and Menzies (held by Liberal MPs Michael Sukkar and Keith Wolahan respectively), the Greens recommended supporters back Labor above the Liberals on their online how to vote cards – but their physical leaflets, handed out at polling stations on Saturday, tell voters to vote “in the order of your choice”, making no recommendations.
Labor sources claim this could help Sukkar and Wolahan hang on to their seats. Labor had earlier in the campaign raised the prospect of winning one or both of Menzies or Deakin, but sources lowered those expectations as the campaign went on.
A Labor campaign spokesperson said:
If the Greens were serious about keeping Peter Dutton out, about taking action on housing and about stopping ultra-conservative forces in our parliament, they would not be paving the way for Michael Sukkar to be re-elected in Deakin.
They vote with Sukkar in parliament to delay thousands of social and affordable homes being built, then they stick with him on election day. This move just shows the Greens political party for who they really are, and they should be embarrassed.
In a tweet, the Victorian Labor account claimed the Greens were “helping Peter Dutton become prime minister in Victoria’s two most marginal seats by running open tickets in both”.
Rafqa Touma
Thank you for joining me on today’s rather lively federal election day blog. Handing over now to the great Caitlin Cassidy, who will keep you posted with updates into the evening.
Long queues of up to 80-minutes at some polling stations in Melbourne and Sydney
Voters have reported long queues at some polling stations in Melbourne and Sydney today, with the longest queue recorded by the AEC taking about 80 minutes.
Guardian Australia’s Alan Vaarwerk was in line for over an hour in Collingwood, Melbourne, this morning. “It was even longer after I left,” he said.
AEC spokesperson Evan Ekin-Smyth said it tracked queues with markers throughout election day.
The longest that I saw in the reported data that we have was about 80 minutes.
That is obviously much longer than you would like it to be.
Melbourne’s Docklands had one venue with a significant queue. Ekin-Smyth said the queue was down to 20 minutes after additional AEC staff were deployed.
“I’ve spoken to one of the staff members there who reported that while there was a queue, there did not seem to be a level of angst among the voters present,” he said.
Across 7000 polling stations, he said, most were seeing little wait time, if any at all.
“It is hard to say exactly why those venues have seen bigger queues, because we did forecasts … But you can never fully accurately predict voter behaviour,” Ekin-Smyth said.
He explained CBD locations could be tricky: “On polling day, most of the venues around the nation are schools or community halls or church halls. They’re in short supply in a CBD.”
Even after half the voting population lodged early votes, the AEC “still needed eight to 9 million people to come through the doors today,” he said. “That’s still massive.”
We work really hard on minimising queues where we can – we’ve been assisted in this endeavour over many years by Deakin university. Looking at table loadings, venue setups, forecast management and mini-queues.
There is no election in the world without queues. It’s part of any in-person, large scale process.
New ‘swing-o-metre’ feature added to our results page tonight
Nick Evershed
We’re adding a new feature to our results page tonight that will show the primary vote swing away from (or to) major parties. Our swing-o-metre will show this nationally and for each electorate.
In the 1980s, Labor and the Coalition shared more than 90% of the primary vote between them, and independent politicians were rare.
But at the 2022 federal election, the combined major party vote was at a record low of 68% and the size of the cross-bench in the lower house reached a record high, with 16 MPs elected either as independents or from a minor party.
Here’s a preview of how the new features look with 2022 data for testing:
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And you can read more about the declining major party vote and what it means, and see how your electorate has changed, in our interactive feature.
Ben Doherty
They do politics differently in America
As far as I’m aware, no candidate in today’s Australian federal election has also nominated themselves to be pope (any baptised Catholic male is canonically eligible to be elected to the papacy. However, in practice (since 1378 anyway), the conclave always chooses a cardinal).
Also, Donald Trump is not Catholic.
This tweet is from the actual White House …
Sydney candidates post Airtasker ads for workers to hand out how-to-vote cards
Ben Doherty
Several candidates in Sydney – Australia’s most fiercely capitalistic city – have posted “handing out how-to-vote cards” ads on Airtasker, hoping to bolster their presence at polling booths – and, so the logic goes, their votes.
A perfunctory search of the service marketplace app revealed several candidates posted ads seeking gig economy workers for “Polling booth attendance”.
Most ads are a little coy about precisely whose electoral fortunes workers will benefit.
One from a “David S” asks for assistance handing out how-to-vote cards in Manly in the keenly contested, independent-held seat of Warringah. He set a task budget of $100.
The independent candidate for Reid, Steven Commerford, has put his name to his campaign’s $120 offer. “Wear comfy shoes,” the ad counsels. “T-shirt or cap provided.”
Another post offers $35 (with some negotiation apparent) to put up corflutes in and around Chatswood.
Trying the Uber Eats democracy sausage
Caitlin Cassidy
In a federal election first, Uber Eats is allowing customers in certain cities to order democracy sausages to their door, for “hardworking Australians” who “find themselves without access to a sausage” on 3 May.
Parts of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney have access to the promo, with $3.50 for every sausage donated to Australian Red Cross partners.
Unfortunately, Rafqa Touma was outside the delivery zone and was instead offered a bulk package of uncooked sausages – not really the same. I ordered a meat sausage with onion and sauce and a vegetarian sausage from the “Democracy Sausage Store” for $15.96, delivery included.
It took less than half an hour to arrive in green boxes labelled “democracy sausage delivered”. Inside was, unsurprisingly, a piece of white bread with a sausage, sauces in sachets and a ballot paper that ticked preferences for sauces, onion and variety of sausage. “Exercise your Democratic Bite,” the box told me.
The meat sausage was cold, while the vegetarian sausage tasted like sawdust. I gave the leftovers to my dog, who lapped it up eagerly and stained his snout with mustard.
Dutton and Albanese cast votes
Prime minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton have both lodged their votes.
Dutton voted in his seat of Dickson at the Albany Creek state school in Brisbane with his wife, Kirilly, and sons, Harry and Tom. He’s held the seat since 2001.
Albanese was joined by his partner, Jodie, and son, Nathan, at a primary school in Marrickville, Sydney. The polling station is in his seat, Grayndler, which he’s held since 1996.
Caitlin Cassidy
Palestine, gun crime and cost of living key issues in Blaxland in Sydney’s west
Next to the seat of Parramatta is Blaxland, where independent Ahmed Ouf hopes to unseat Labor for the first time in the electorate’s history.
It’s currently held by the education minister, Jason Clare, on a 13% margin. Mufeeza, 24, is campaigning for Ouf at Parramatta west public school. Before he ran for parliament, she knew him as her local chemist.
It’s a movement I actually support due to his stance on Palestine, so I’m here to support him. I’ve lived here all my life and we haven’t had representation, except from the Greens, until now.
Outside the polling booth, votes are split. Russal, who’s been in the area for just under three years, voted Liberal due to the party’s tough stance on crime and desire for “more police patrols” after gun violence in the area.
Rebecca, a university worker who recently moved to the electorate, voted Greens, citing the party’s stance on housing affordability, cost-of-living policies and opposition to international student caps.
Meanwhile, Pramola, who recently became an Australian citizen, voted Labor, in large part because of its childcare subsidy. Her son has just turned one.
Since Covid, cost of living has increased a lot, but it’s the entire world, right? Because of inflation. I think people are more happy under Labor.
Caitlin Cassidy
Volunteers make nice at Parramatta school after corflute drama Friday night
Parramatta west public school had regained a sense of calm on Saturday afternoon after Liberal signs erected late last night were removed or destroyed. Volunteers stood side by side, despite wearing different colours, jesting amicably.
The Liberal candidate, Katie Mullens, who is contesting the marginal seat for the first time, told the Sydney Morning Herald it was “disappointing” people were putting their efforts into “destruction instead of the issues that really matter”.
Warren Gardener has been volunteering for Labor for 50 years. He says Andrew Charlton, who holds the seat on a 3.7% margin, has gone from an outsider last election to the frontrunner. He wasn’t involved in any poster removal but says this year has been marred by drama over corflutes.
Some of this stuff has become over the top, flyering everywhere … here it’s usually civilised … I don’t see how [putting up posters] helps the Coalition. A few months ago things weren’t looking very good [for Labor] but things have turned around quite dramatically.
Josh is volunteering for the Liberal party for the second time. The 23-year-old says the cost of living is the biggest issue on people’s minds – particularly for him as a new homeowner and small business owner.
It’s a pretty even split here from what I can see – a lot of people are moving away from the major parties too. One thing people aren’t factoring is preferences. One Nation preferencing Liberal second is going to be huge.
There’s been some nastiness [during the campaign] – I’ve been spat on by another volunteer. It’s nice today to have volunteers that regardless of parties are getting along.
