That’s the impression from voters, who have been redirected from the Batemans Bay Community Centre to the actual 2011 NSW election pre-poll centre at the Aboriginal Lands Council office in Orient Street.

The Community Centre will be the voting venue on the actual election day, March 26, but in the meantime, pre-poll voting is being held at the Lands Council venue, which is located in the “blue building” behind Wesley Uniting Employment.

It seems many residents are unaware of the move and, even when informed of the new location, are having difficulty finding and accessing it.

“It’s a terrible location,” Moruya Liberal Party president Estelle Neilson said.

“We have had a lot of people complaining about the location,” Batemans Bay branch ALP member Ewan Morrison said.

It was expected that 300 people a day would vote at the polling booth but, on Monday, only 138 voted there.

“It’s been very quiet,” Mrs Neilson said.

Batemans Bay resident Pat Barron assisted disabled friend Yvonne Heard to the Community Centre yesterday, only to be told they had come to the wrong place.

“It is easy for someone like me to go between places, but for someone like Yvonne, who can’t go places without assistance, it is very difficult,” Ms Barron said.

The centre is open from 8am to 6pm weekdays. On Saturday it is open from 8am to 5pm and it is closed on Sunday. There will be extended hours next Thursday, when the booth will stay open until 8pm.

A Eurobodalla Shire Council spokesperson said that the Community Centre was “booked solid” by community groups in the two weeks leading up to the election and was therefore not available, and NSW Electoral Commission spokesman Richard Carroll defended the change of venue.

“A lot goes into choosing venues for pre-poll voting, but you can’t be using the same place from election to election,” he said.

For more information on pre-poll voting, go to www.votensw.info.