Residents in central Victoria say the closure of three local polling booths is a "kick in the teeth" for rural communities, with voters facing longer trips to cast their ballots in the upcoming state election.
An analysis of Victorian Electoral Commission data has revealed 36 regional towns that had a polling booth at the 2022 state election will no longer have one within five kilometres.
In nine of those towns, the nearest voting centre was at least 10km away for this election.
The furthest is Lalbert, in the state's north-west, where voters will need to travel to Quambatook, about 24km away. Only 26 voters cast their ballot in Lalbert in 2022.
The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) has confirmed three booths west of Bendigo at Bridgewater on Loddon, Tarnagulla and Marong are among those not being reopened.
Jill Hobbs, president of the Bridgewater on Loddon Development group said the group was told last week that its Memorial Hall would not be needed this year.
"No explanation. Was our amenity deficient in some way?" Ms Hobbs said.
"We have no idea, we just got told [it's] not going to be used this time."
Bridgewater voters will now need to travel to Inglewood, about 8 kilometres away.
Last week, the VEC reversed a decision to close a polling booth that would have left residents in the western Victorian town of Kaniva facing an 80-kilometre round-trip to vote.
Ms Hobbs said while central Victorians weren't facing as much of an inconvenience, the decision was still "another little kick in the teeth for rural communities".
"We can't sell a democracy sausage now and raise any money for a community organisation," she said.
"Those local people that would have been working there to supplement their household income, they can't work there anymore."
She said the group had tried to contact the VEC to have the booth reinstated but had received only automated replies.
Lack of communication 'very disappointing'
Marong resident Michael Shay said there had always been a polling centre in the town in the 30 years he had lived there.
He said both Marong Primary School and Marong Town Hall, which have both been used as voting centres at previous state and federal elections, applied to be a centre at this election but did not hear back.
He said many residents would not realise their local booth had gone until they went looking for it.
"A lot of people that get the paperwork will just assume that there's going to be a local polling booth," Mr Shay said.
"We've got a lot of elderly people and the township has grown phenomenally in the last five years.
The nearest voting centres for Marong residents are at Maiden Gully and Lockwood, about 10 kilometres away.
Mr Shay said residents without a car would struggle to get there.
"There's a lot of people in town that are probably going to have to rely on public transport, and on a weekend there's no public transport to go and vote," he said.
Tarnagulla voters will need to travel about 8 kilometres to Newbridge.
Brian Ryan, president of the Bridgewater Recreation Reserve committee, said the group earlier this year applied for their community hub to be re-used as a voting centre, as it had been at previous elections.
He said they only learned the town wouldn't have a voting centre at all after the group contacted the VEC to ask why it had not made its usual booking.
"Regional Victoria's getting kicked around again … they're public service, they should be serving the public and they're not," he said.
'More options than ever before'
Victorian Electoral Commissioner Sven Bluemmel said the VEC reviewed its voting centre network at every election, taking into account venue availability, accessibility and how many voters each location could serve.
"We don't own these venues, so every election we basically start from scratch," Mr Bluemmel said.
He said venues were finalised about a month out from election day because some only became available closer to the date.
Mr Bluemmel acknowledged the closures would be difficult for some people.
"For those individuals, I understand that and of course that's unfortunate, but that is also why we have other ways of voting," he said.
He said there were more voting centres than ever before, particularly for early voting in regional Victoria.
Ms Hobbs said she would vote early, but believed doing so meant missing out on last-minute information before election day.
She said what frustrated her most was that new booths had opened in larger regional centres including Ballarat, Maryborough and Ararat.
"If it hadn't have been the fact that they have opened up other booths in the bigger centres, then it would probably not upset me as much."
Applications for postal voting will close on Wednesday, November 25.
