It's usually a day of community spirit where all eligible Canberrans take part in democracy and take home a sausage sandwich or a cupcake on the way out.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But election day - October 17 - will be markedly different this year.
There won't be any sausage sizzles or cake stalls. There will be plenty of officials to keep polling centres COVID-safe but there won't actually be many voters.
Elections ACT spokesman Evan Ekin-Smyth said it was expected that up to three-quarters of Canberrans would vote early in the three weeks leading up to the final polling day, making for a very quiet affair on October 17.
"Australian elections are reasonably unique in the international context in that it's a bit of a community event. You normally have a sausage sizzle and your cupcake stall. You walk the dog down and you bring the family along. It could be a bit different," he said.
"There might not be as many people you won't see your neighbours down there potentially, and you'll be in and out fairly quickly without your sausage or your cupcake."
Elections ACT had to devise its own COVID-19 safety plan in the lead-up to the ACT election.
For the first time, voters were being encouraged to cast an early vote from September 28 even if they didn't have a specific reason to do so.
When voters go to register, the official will be sitting behind a perspex sneeze-guard and receive their electronic voting card through a small slot.
Officials will be wearing masks and gloves and will aim to wipe down the plastic film covering the electronic voting stations between every voter.
For those opting for a paper ballot, they will be issued a single-use pencil. The cardboard booths set up for paper ballots will have a plastic insert on the writing surface, which will also be sanitised between voters.
Those now-familiar circles on the floor will remind voters to stand 1.5 metres apart while waiting in line.
Instead of voting booths being lined up together they will be stationed 1.5 metres apart.
Hygiene kits, pallets of hand sanitiser and rows of laptop computers are neatly arranged at storage facility in Fyshwick, waiting to be sent out to the 15 early voting centres, followed by the 82 election day polling places.
READ MORE:
Some of the election materials have come from other electoral bodies - the IT equipment has come from the Northern Territory after its recent election and some of the cardboard materials have arrived from Queensland and the Australian Electoral Commission.
The ACT is holding the third Australian election since the onset of COVID-19, after the Northern Territory election and Eden-Monaro byelection.
For Mr Ekin-Smyth and the rest of the Elections ACT team, the excitement was building.
"It's an important thing. You always want to work as part of the body that contributes to something positive and I definitely think we do," he said.