VOTERS and candidates have raised concerns over the position of the Wendouree district pre-polling booth on busy La Trobe Street after a host of near misses in the first few days of election voting.
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The voting centre is causing worries particularly for elderly or disabled residents who are unable to line up on polling day and have chosen to vote early.
Voter Meg said there was too much traffic on the road for the area to be safe.
“It’s extremely dangerous,” she said. “The pre-poll centre used to be at The Atlantic and that was so much better because you could park and didn’t have to cross the road.
Joylene, who’s daughter lives in the block opposite, said she was horrified at the sight of elderly people dodging traffic.
“Traffic goes fast either way and drivers are impatient and tooting, it’s craziness,” she said.
“They are also parking in driveway’s and my daughter has a broken leg and had to drive around the block and wait until she could park at her house.”
Wendouree Liberal candidate Amy Johnson said the lack of parking at the venue was disappointing.
“We have seen a few near misses,” she said. “There’s been a constant stream of coming through.
“We just ask that people don’t put themselves at risk. If you’re able to, park a little bit away and walk down. If you’re not able to walk, there are options available for you.”
Until close of business on Wednesday night, there had been 3330 people come through the polling booth.
Labor candidate Juliana Addison said she thought more disabled parking was needed on the site.
“What we are noticing is that a lot of people coming through are elderly or people with a disability,” she said.
“They’ve been telling us they are voting early because they will be unable to stand in a line on the Saturday. There’s definitely a need for some disabled parking on the site. There’s four parking spots along the side, I think they could potentially be opened up.”
Australian Country Party upper house candidate Costa Di Biase said he was surprised at how busy the road was. “I left the city in the first place because I didn’t like the traffic, it’s like we’re in Brunswick,” he said.
Victorian Electoral Commission site manager Lynne Josephs urged people to take care getting to and from the centre.
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