Wodonga 18-year-old Stephen Damm, who is on a gap year, said he was looking forward to going to the polling booths on Saturday. 

“Both my parents are very political, I was brought up into it,” he said.

“I’m excited I actually get the chance to vote this year.”

For years, Stephen’s electorate of Indi was regarded as a safe Liberal seat, but now he has the chance to help determine the fate of one the of the most-watched seats in the nation.

“It does make a difference, because it’s a lot more of a contested seat,” he said.

“When I was growing up, it was all Sophie Mirabella’s the person around here. But nowadays, there are a few different options with Cathy (McGowan) and the like.”

Stephen told The Border Mail he had to get his head around what an independent candidate was, as it had only been glanced over in political studies at school.

“There’s a lot of independents who are left wing, but Cathy’s sort of in-between,” he said.

For the upper house, Stephen was considering voting below the line.

He thought Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s team would win government in the end.

“They’ve got a lot of support backing them, but I think it will be close,” he said.

Australian Electoral Commission statistics revealed 71 per cent of 18-year-olds were enrolled to vote before applications closed on May 23.