Victorian election campaign opens 3 November, with polling day on 28 November
Victoria's state election campaign formally starts on Tuesday 3 November. Election writs are issued at 6pm that day, and the government enters caretaker mode, the period before an election when it handles routine business only. Polling day is Saturday 28 November, with polling places open from 8am to 6pm.
The electoral roll closes at 8pm on 3 November. The Victorian Electoral Commission, which runs the poll, expects almost 4.7 million Victorians to be enrolled, the biggest number of voters the state has had.
Labor has governed Victoria since 2014. Ben Carroll replaced Jacinta Allan as Premier, and his government is officially styled the Carroll Labor Government. The government says a re-elected Carroll Labor Government would deliver free dental services.
The Liberal Party is led by Jess Wilson. According to the Guardian's explainer, the Coalition needs to hold all of its seats and pick up 16 more to win.
Former ABC election analyst Antony Green has said the result will have greater consequences for national politics than any state election in his lifetime.
Recent opinion polls have shown a three-way split in support between Labor, the Coalition and One Nation, and several have put One Nation on the highest share of first-choice votes, Green wrote in a July analysis. He also noted that One Nation outpolled the Liberal Party at the South Australian state election. One Nation has launched its Victorian campaign vowing to legalise the personal use of pepper spray and to abolish the state's First Nations treaty.
The upper house has new voting rules. Group voting tickets have been abolished, a change that passed parliament in August. Voters must now number at least five party groups above the line, the party boxes, or at least five individual candidates below the line.
To help voters understand the change, the Victorian Electoral Commission will send more than 3 million voter information guides to households. The commission will also use computers, rather than paper rolls, to mark voters off the electoral roll.
Victoria overhauled its political donation laws in June, after the High Court, Australia's top court, ruled the previous laws unconstitutional.
Early voting runs from 17 to 27 November, with voting centres open from 9am to 6pm every day except Sundays. Voters can cast their vote at any voting centre in Victoria on election day.
Postal voting requires eligible voters to apply by 8pm on 3 November. Postal voting is open from 4 November until 6pm on 25 November. Blind or vision-impaired Victorians who want a braille ballot must register before 5pm on 2 November.
Low-sensory voting will be offered at one location in each district from 17 November, between 10am and 4pm. Candidate nominations open on Wednesday 4 November and close at 12 noon on Monday 9 November, according to the Victorian Electoral Commission.
