The traditional two-week period of pre-poll voting at all local, state and federal elections has always tended to favour the major parties and incumbents who have had the resources and organisation behind them to gather enough supporters to ensure a constant presence outside the polling booth throughout the long, often tiring, fortnight.

Even at a local government election, where the major political parties have less of a presence, pre-poll voting offers a significant advantage to candidates running together on a ticket because they can take it in turns pressing the flesh and handing out how-to-vote material.

With around half the population now choosing to vote ahead of the official polling day, a candidate's success - or otherwise - during pre-polling has a major bearing on their chances of election so any changes must be carefully considered.

So we would hope the decision to split pre-poll voting across two centres ahead of the December 4 local government election was not one taken lightly.

Voters will this year be able to cast a pre-poll ballot at either the Bathurst Girl Guides Hall and the Catholic Parish Centre to guard against over-crowding at either venue.

But it means candidates must now spread their often limited resources even more thinly in a bid to get their message to voters as they arrive. So the question must be asked, just how necessary is any of this?

This newspaper has previously argued that two weeks for pre-polling was far too long and the period should be at least halved in the interests of fairness to all candidates.

Those who have stood outside the polling centre at previous Bathurst elections will tell you that even despite the growing popularity of pre-polling, there is rarely a long queue waiting to get in and voters arrive in more of a trickle than a flood.

If COVID has made over-crowding a concern this year, though, then perhaps this is the one election that could justify two weeks of pre-polling to thin out the numbers.

But two weeks of pre-polling and two pre-polling centres seems over-the-top.

Democracy should allow candidates some access to the voters and, more importantly, voters some access to the candidates.

Sadly, that won't be the case often enough at this election.