National Party members in Benambra, held by Liberal MP Bill Tilley, have directed their efforts to the three-cornered contest in the new electorate.

There, Nationals candidate Steph Ryan is facing off against Liberal candidate - and chair of the Liberal party conference for the federal seat of Indi - Tony Schneider.

Tensions have been simmering between the Coalition since the Liberals' decision to run a candidate in what the Nationals had claimed as a notionally safe seat with a margin of about 13 per cent.

President of the Nationals Rutherglen branch, Don Chambers, said ordinarily party members in a Liberal seat would assist their Coalition partners in their local campaigns, but many had chosen not to today.

"My view and the view of many was that it's just a waste of resources given the Coalition agreement," he said.

"We were happy with the agreement, but Liberal Party management were being a bit bloody-minded in my opinion... but we'll get on with it."

He said a handful of members had chosen to stay at Rutherglen polling booths to assist Mr Tilley.

It comes after several Liberal how-to-vote cards were hand-altered at a pre-poll booth in Wangaratta this week, to the detriment of the Nationals.

The Liberal Party said it was the work of one "rogue volunteer" who was quickly disciplined, but other party volunteers claimed seeing multiple Liberal members alter cards.