Victorian Electoral Commission early voting centres open in south-west electorates with scrapped rules

Early voting centres opened their doors today in Warrnambool and Portland for the South West Coast, Colac and Torquay for Polwarth, and Hamilton and Horsham for Lowan.

The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) is actively encouraging voters to get their ballots in early after it ditched rules which required punters to submit a valid reason for not voting on polling day.

Warrnambool resident Narelle Coulson said she decided to cast an early vote after seeing the 'you don't need a reason to vote early' sign on her bike ride home.

"I saw the sign when I was passing by on my bike and thought it was a good idea to get in early," she said.

"It's nice to get it done and out of the way."

Ms Coulson said it saved her the hassle of queuing in long lines on voting day and the early-voting process was "seamless".

Warrnambool resident Sarah Drew said she opted to use the pre-poll centre to free up her schedule.

"I'll be away on voting day, so I needed to get mine done early," she said.

"It was super easy, I think I was in there for just two minutes."

Ms Drew said she had not voted early before but its convenience had convinced her to seek it for future elections.

"This is the first time I've voted early, but I think I'll do it again," she said.

More than 40 per cent of the Wannon electorate voted early or submitted a postal vote in the federal election in May this year with similar pre-polling turnout expected for the Victoria state election.

The growing trend has prompted calls from South West Coast independent candidate Carol Altmann for the VEC to review its how-to-vote card laws after the commission advised blank cards could be used during pre-polling but not on voting day.

Ms Altmann has had to make last-minute alterations to her how-to-vote cards which has her box numbered and other candidates with question marks.

"I modelled this how-to-vote card on a federal election card," she said.

"We decided to go for question marks to prompt people to at least fill it out, but that's not good enough apparently.

"It forces you to make preferences. It shows that (the electoral commission) has failed to catch up with true independents who do not want to preference."

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