Almost 15,400 people voted early in the electorate by Saturday night, Australian Electoral Commission said.

That was well above the 8044 who voted during the first week of 2019 pre-polling, though the AEC has noted that the early voting period for this election is shorter than last time.

It is expecting Australian early voting to surge this election and last weekend warned the number of mailed-in votes could delay result announcements.

More news: Woman dies in fatal single car crash on highway

"We simply cannot count postal votes on election night - we're already at the limits of our staffing capacity, and work health and safety responsibilities, with the count of election day and pre-poll votes," electoral commissioner Tom Rogers said.

The AEC had received more than one million postal votes by Saturday night, 5981 of which were for Bendigo.

Nearly 40,000 people voted at a Bendigo electorate pre-poll booth in 2019. The figure does not include those who voted in other ways, including by mail.

Pre-poll voters' opinions on who should represent Bendigo varied depending on their location.

At Mitchell Street's polling place, 43 per cent of voters gave incumbent Labor MP Lisa Chesters their first preference.

Her vote swelled to 55.87 per cent of the vote, compared to the Liberals' Sam Gayed, once preferences were distributed to the two candidates with the most votes.

A total of 21,037 people voted at that pre-poll centre.

Ms Chesters support was slightly lower among the 15,060 who cast their votes early in Castlemaine, though she ended up with 53.77 per cent of the vote compared to Mr Gayed once preferences were distributed.

The Labor candidate romped home at Castlemaine's pre-poll booths with 68.79 per cent of the vote.

That was largely thanks to preferences from minor parties including The Greens, which had picked up nearly 20 per cent of the vote.

It was part of a wider trend in support for The Greens through the southern part of the electorate, where voters have typically voted in higher numbers for left-leaning parties.

More news: Man charged over weekend Bendigo hoon driving incident faces court

In Bendigo, The Greens picked up 8.9 per cent of the pre-poll votes in 2019.

In Golden Square, they garnered 5.65 per cent, behind Pauline Hanson's One Nation on 7.67 per cent.

It was the only pre-poll booth where The Greens did not come in third on first preference votes behind the major parties, in the Bendigo electorate.

This year's prepoll centres are operating at 45 Mitchell Street Bendigo, St Paul's Cathedral, the Kangaroo Flat Gateway Function Centre and Castlemaine Catholic Church Hall.

The AEC will tally election results from Saturday night.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: