ANY coincidence Indi’s main players have spent many hours on freezing cold days at the Wodonga and Wangaratta pre-poll centres in the final days leading up to the federal election?
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Absolutely none.
The campaign teams crunched the numbers from the 2013 election won by Cathy McGowan months ago and fully understand this is where Indi will be won or lost again on Saturday.
Between 1000 and 2000 voters converged on the booths of Wodonga, Wodonga and Benalla three years ago and results from those sites were the first evidence in Ms McGowan sweeping to victory.
The Wodonga, Wodonga Central and Wodonga South booths all went Ms McGowan's way and even after the first preference count from the city's pre-poll centre showed Mrs Mirabella in front, the independent came out on top in the final two candidate count.
A similar story unfolded in Wangaratta.
Ms McGowan won all four booths including the pre-poll on the two-candidate result.
Mrs Mirabella won two booths in Benalla and her and Ms McGowan split the Rutherglen and Myrtleford booths respectively.
The Rutherglen result was helped in some way by former National Party MP Ken Jasper endorsing her.
Mr Jasper is backing his own party’s candidate Marty Corboy, but has ruffled the feathers of the Coalition partner, the Liberals, in urging voters to preference Ms McGowan ahead of Mrs Mirabella.
Some say Mr Jasper’s influence counts for little this time around as his personal dislike for Mrs Mirabella remains unchanged.
The further away from the big centres, the more voters stuck with Mrs Mirabella three years ago.
The total number of enrolments in Indi has cracked the 100,000 mark and more than 30 per cent of voters have already made their decision.
The informal vote traditionally hovers around the 5 per cent and postals generally account for another 10 per cent.
In all likelihood, the Indi result won't be known on Saturday, but the fate of Mrs Mirabella or Mr Corboy will be sealed around 8.30pm.
As predicted, the pre-poll votes have eclipsed those from three years ago.
The latest Australian Electoral Commission data shows 32,996 people have already voted.
This is up from 24,539 in 2013.
The biggest turnouts in the last three days, not surprisingly, were in Wodonga with a peak of 1599.
Wangaratta wasn't far behind that number, with 1160 and 1154 voters on back-to-back days.
Democracy in action.
