REDLANDERS have turned out to the city's pre-polling stations in their droves, with AEC statistics revealing almost 40,000 people in Bowman have already cast their vote.
That is on top of the more than 14,000 people in the electorate who have submitted a postal vote to the commission ahead of election day.
Redlands pre-polling booths have been open at Cleveland, Capalaba and Victoria Point since May 9, while AEC statistics show hundreds of Bowman voters also used stations in Brisbane.
The LNP are expected to retain Bowman despite the departure of long-serving backbencher Andrew Laming, but it remains to be seen what impact it will have on the party's margin in the electorate.
Henry Pike - who ran unsuccessfully for the seat of Redlands at the 2020 state government election - is the short-priced favourite to claim Bowman ahead of Labor's Donisha Duff.
The coalition have shortened to $2.80 in the overall election betting market, but Labor are still the outright favourite to win government at $1.48, while bookies are offering $2.20 for a hung Parliament.
AEC data shows the Cleveland polling booth has grown busier as the May 21 election has drawn closer, with 2101 voters turning out at the centre on Wednesday and 2194 on Thursday.
A total of 4.6 million Australians have cast their votes early.
The AEC confirmed on Friday morning that it had made progress on addressing staff shortages in regional areas.
Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said some polling stations would be operating with reduced staff and warned queuing at those venues would be inevitable.
"For the past week we've been working hard to assign temporary staff to election day roles quicker than we've been losing them to COVID-19," Tom Rogers said.
"Our 105,000 strong workforce across Australia has had approximately 10-15 per cent turnover in the past week alone and this risk will continue right up until 8am tomorrow."
Candidates for the Bowman seat are Henry Pike (LNP), Donisha Duff (ALP), Ian Mazlin (Greens), Walter Todd (One Nation), Mary-Jane Stevens (UAP) and Phil Johnson (TNL).
Read about where to vote on election day in the Redlands here.
