WA Election - Pre-Polling Blitz in Joondalup and Burns Beach

As the sun paints its first pastel hues over second-last day of this long and hard-fought election campaign in the northern Perth electorate of Joondalup, Jan Norberger MLA, sets out to retain a healthy margin in the key seat of Joondalup. A former RAAF serviceman, Norberger organises his campaign with military precision.

After an early recon mission around polling booths to confirm setup for Election Day, it's straight to the pre-polling booth in Joondalup for setup. With record large numbers of electors coming out for early voting, it's a jostle for prime location.

A positive buzz has filled the air all day, with tremendous levels of support for our local candidates. By lunchtime the Blue Army numbers had swelled to over 20 and our counterparts in red could barely be seen floundering in a sea of blue. Despite them calling in reinforcements, they remained outnumbered and outmanoeuvred for most of the day.

We had fun giving a handful of Labor candidates some spelling lessons after we shared with them a recent edition of the Joondalup Times* in which they had consumed pages 1-4 with advertisements and propaganda rife with spelling and grammatical errors, including a headline proving: "WA Labor's Plan for the Northen (sic) Suburbs".

With long days filled with train station visits, pre-polling stations, door-knocking, letter-boxing, and phone canvassing, bracketed daily by corflutte waving - This truly is the YL bread and butter.

It's been an honour to work with the diligent and committed members and candidates within the federal division of Moore.

Bring on the final day of campaigning!

Benjamin Singline is Treasurer of the Young Liberal Movement of Tasmania and Secretary of the Southern Tasmania Young Liberals.

*Joondalup Times, Tuesday March 7, 2017