Victorian Election 2014: The regions vote

6pm: Nine News/Galaxy exit poll is suggesting a narrow ALP victory. 

4pm: Firefighters, along with ambos, have been one of the more vocal groups today. Scroll through Twitter and it doesn't take very long to find a tweet about their protests around Victoria.

3.20pm: The Greens open ticket story develops.

3pm: Nationals leader Peter Ryan has been spending the day with family.

2.30pm: The Greens are running open tickets in key marginal seats, angering Labor, which has accused the Greens of helping the Napthine government.

Open tickets are how-to-vote cards that have no instruction to voters about where to allocate preferences.

Greens preference flows help Labor win in some marginal seats.

Greens state director Larissa Brown said that in two-thirds of the 88 lower house seats the party had preferenced Labor ahead of the Liberals.

But she said in the other seats local branches had decided to run open tickets. Read more.

2.18pm: Geoff Ablett, the Liberal trying to oust Labor's Jude Perera in Cranbourne, says some voters have told him they would vote Labor because they disliked the Abbott government's budget. Mr Ablett, the mayor of the City of Casey and a former Hawthorn premiership player, said he had detected voters at the booths he had visited were leaning towards Labor.

"I know that some changes need to be made federally because you can't keep going further into the debt, but that has repercussed to people who have said to me, 'I'm not voting for you because of federal government cutbacks'," Mr Ablett said while campaigning at Courtenay Gardens Primary School on Saturday.

2.10pm: 

2.05pm: For some, election day is all about the barbecues. Meet some of those hardy folk who willingly take up the tongs!

2pm: Not everyone plays the game when it comes to voting. So, what's the most common doodle scrutineers find on voting papers these days? Click here to find out.

1.50pm: It's been a day of snags and smiles for Denis Napthine as the premier road-trips his way around the South West Coast electorate to greet voters. 

The Premier planned out an entire day travelling across south-west Victoria, spending the morning in Heywood, Yambuk and Portland before voting at Port Fairy alongside his neighbours and supporters. 

Take a glimpse at his day here.

1.35pm: Never underestimate the power of the humble sanga sandwich...

1.15pm: Even opposing candidates were offered a treat from Denis Napthine's lolly bag.

12.55pm: An exit poll by the Bendigo Advertiser is predicting a Labor victory.

The Addy has polled 50 people leaving the main polling booth in Bendigo Town Hall to get a feel for how the vote might go today.

Here's the results from those 50 votes:

Labour 27 votes (54 per cent)

Liberal 11 votes (22 per cent)

Greens 5 votes (10 per cent)

Animal Justice 5 votes (10 per cent)

Nationals 1 vote (2 per cent)

Sex Party 1 vote (2 per cent)

Voters said knowledge of the political leaders, promises to improve towns and family voting traditions had influenced their decisions.

A small sample - yes - but will this ring true by night's end?

12.42pm: The perils of politics...

11.30am: A quick vote in the state election followed by a road-trip to Lorne for schoolies celebrations. 

That was the plan for first time voter Josie Whiteford, 18, of Nerrina, on Saturday.

The recently graduated Loreto College student and self-confessed 'greenie' spoke to The Courier at Black Hill Primary School and said she had been looking forward to her first vote for some time. Hear her thoughts here.

10.30am: What's been promised for Bendigo in this election? Check out the recap here. 

10am: Not sure where to vote this morning? Check out the VEC's Voting Centre Lookup widget. Type in your postcode and find a polling booth. 

9.45am: Want a good reason to get to the polling booth? The Age reporter Tom Cowie shows you.

9.30am: Fantastic cartoon in The Standard in Warrnambool today. South-West Victorians have been wooed by an unprecedented election cash splash, with the Coalition pledging nearly $120 million to the South West Coast, compared with $5 million from Labor. It's the biggest for an election campaign in the Western District.

9am: In Ballarat, the seats of Ripon, Wendouree and Buninyong will be crucial to Daniel Andrews or Denis Napthine winning the election. 

The Coalition is expected to take Ripon, also a marginal seat, from Labor but the ALP is favoured to win Buninyong, which takes in the majority of the former seat of Ballarat East held by Labor member Geoff Howard since 1999.

8.30am: Welcome to Fairfax Regional's coverage of Victorian Election day 2014. We will bring you updates throughout the day from Fairfax newspapers across Victoria. To kick off, here's a video on how to vote from the Victorian Electoral Commission.