Voting in the ACT election officially opens on Monday, marking the start of an 18-day pre-poll period during which Elections ACT hopes as many as 80 per cent of voters will cast their ballot.

From smoke, fire and hail to a global pandemic, 2020 has been a year like no other. Get ready for an election like no other.

Your vote will help decide which party forms the next territory government and the 25 candidates who will sit in the ACT Legislative Assembly.

Labor had 12 members in the 9^th Assembly, the Liberals 11 and the Greens 2.

A total of 137 candidates will contest the 2020 race, slightly below the 141 who ran in 2016 but well above the 74 who fought for seats in 2012.

Correct.

October 17 remains the date of the 2020 ACT election.

On the night of October 17 we will (almost certainly, but more on this later) find out whether Andrew Barr's Labor has won another term or if Alistair Coe has led the Liberals into government for the first time in 19 years.

But it won't feel like an ordinary election day, and it's not just because the beloved democracy sausage is off the menu due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The polling day queues are expected to be far shorter than usual, with the ACT electoral commission actively encouraging Canberrans to vote early as a precaution against any potential outbreak of COVID-19.

Vote early, vote safe - that's the message Elections ACT will push throughout the final three weeks of the campaign period.

To put Elections ACT's 80 per cent pre-poll target into perspective, that's more than double the percentage of people who cast their votes early when Barr's Labor beat Jeremy Hanson's Liberals in 2016.

ACT Electoral Commissioner Damian Cantwell successfully lobbied the Legislative Assembly to tweak the territory's electoral laws to allow it to stage a "Covid-safe" ballot.

For the first time, every eligible Canberra voter will be able to cast their votes ballot prior to October 17.

Early voting booths will be set up at 15 locations scattered across the territory. The booths will be open from 9am to 5pm on Saturday to Thursday, and from 9am to 8pm on Friday.

To further encourage early voting, Elections ACT will publish data on the number of people voting at each booth at different times throughout the day.

Postal voting will still be an option for those who aren't able to make it to one of the pre-poll stations or a booth on October 17.

For those Canberrans living - or stranded - overseas, Elections ACT will allow them to vote using an online platform. The overseas e-voting service will go live once pre-poll opens on Monday.

There will be 82 booths set up on October 17 for those determined to keep with tradition and exercise their democratic right on polling day. But remember, you won't be able to snag a snag after you do.

A range of precautions will be taken at all booths to ensure the voting process complies with coronavirus restrictions and public health guidelines.

Designated "queue controllers" will on guard to police physical distancing, hand sanitiser will be placed at the entry and exits of all stations, and electronic voting screens will be cleaned after every use.

Planning an election night party? It might be a short one.

Election counts are known to drag long into the evening, with results slowly trickling in and the outcome not known for hours, if not days, after polling closes.

But that almost certainly won't be the case in the ACT on October 17.

How so? Has ABC elections guru Antony Green developed some crack new poll-predicting technology capable of crunching numbers in record time?

Not quite.

With the overwhelming majority of pre-poll votes to be cast electronically, Elections ACT will have access to results not long after the press of a button.

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If Canberrans heed the message and vote early en-masse, the result of the ACT election will be known within a few hours - if not earlier. Votes cast on October 17 will still need to be counted, and it'll certainly take time for preferences to be sorted and all the seats to be determined. The polling won't officially be "declared" for days.

But it's likely Canberrans will know if Labor or the Liberals have been victorious by the time they sit down for Saturday night dinner on October 17.