State election candidates confirmed

THE list of people running in this month’s State election have been locked in.

Last Friday saw the close of nominations for the vote, with the order they’ll appear on the ballot drawn shortly after.

The local electoral divisions of Eureka – which was known as Buninyong, Ripon and Geelong, all of which span Golden Plains Shire have all gone through significant boundary changes recently.

In Eureka, which geographically covers most of the Shire, along with south-eastern Ballarat, and almost all of the people in Moorabool Shire, there’s 10 names on the ballot.

Liberal Paul Tatchell was placed first on the ballot, with Anthony Giampaolo representing the Freedom Party of Victoria, The Green’s Sam McColl, Family First’s Adrian Garcia, the DLP’s Tabitha Rickard, Wendy Morrison from the Animal Justice Party, independents Michael Ray, Nicola Reid, and Mark Banwell, and sitting ALP member Michaela Settle rounding out the rest of the places.

Ripon, which takes in the north of Golden Plains, the western fringes of Ballarat, and parts or all of six other municipalities, has nine candidates in the running to represent voters in State parliament.

First on the list is Shooters, Fishers & Farmers representative Luke Smith. He’s followed in order by independent Wayne Rigg, Earl James from the Greens, Martha Haylett from the ALP, Wren Wilson of Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party, current Liberal member Louise Staley, Holly Sitters of the AJP, Craig George from Family First, and finally Bernard Quince.

Meanwhile, voters in the electoral district of Geelong, which includes Bannockburn and surrounds, will have seven people to choose from.

Drawn first was Madeleine Parker-Hill from Family First, independents Angela Carr and Stephen Juhasz are second and third respectively, followed by Liberal James Bennett-Hullin, sitting ALP member Christine Couzens, Bob from the AJP, and the Green’s Aleisha Smith.

Across Victoria 740 candidates nominated for the lower house, whole 455 rolled the dice on an upper house seat.

Meanwhile, 4.4 million people will be asked to cast a vote as part of the 26 November ballot when rolls closed.

Electoral commissioner Warwick Gately said 50 per cent of eligible voters are expected to make use of early voting options.

“We expect more than half of all Victorian voters to vote early in the two weeks before election day,” he said.

“A list of candidates for each electorate is available on the VEC website and I encourage voters to look up their local candidates ahead of time.”