ACT election 2020: What we've learnt about ACT electorates from smartvote

Smartvote Australia, an ANU project, is an online tool that helps to match voters to the election candidates who share their views on certain policies.

Professor Patrick Dumont, who is leading the project, said by the time voting closes on Saturday, researchers expected about 10 per cent of voters would have completed the survey.

As of Friday night, it had been used almost 40,000 times.

The tool has tracked the ideological spread of candidates across each seat.

It revealed the Gungahlin-based seat of Yerrabi had the most narrow spread of candidates, with the Liberals, who were generally deemed centrist, the most right leaning and conservative of any candidates.

Meanwhile the Tuggeranong-based seat of Brindabella had the greatest ideological spread of candidates.

According to the data, the Liberal Democratic Party candidates running in the seat were the most economically right wing of any at the election, however they had centrist to liberal social leanings.

The Greens were the most left leaning of the candidates.

"Certainly the one for Yerrabi is very limited in terms of spread," Professor Dumont said.

"You really have candidates who stand very close to one another.

"Whether this is something that is also observable on the voter level is a good question."

The data showed there was little that separated the Liberals and Labor on economic policy, both having relatively centrist views.

"The fact that the Liberals here in the ACT have been in opposition for 20 years means they also need to be strategic in adapting to the ACT sociology on the right-left dimension," professor Dumont said.

When comparing Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Liberal Leader Alistair Coe, the biggest difference came on social issues, with Mr Coe likely to have far more traditionalist leanings.

Professor Dumon said it would be more difficult for a territory Liberal government to have a clear right wing ideology around the role of the state in the economy, because there were a lot of local services it needed to deliver.

"Also the pandemic situation which would be another explanation," he said.

"[The federal Liberals] having basically to put their core doctrinal principles regarding state intervention ... completely on hold to save jobs.

"It might have been also one of the reasons why the Liberals in the dimensions are quite close actually to labor on the economic issues.

"Some people might be surprised to see there are not so many candidates on the right hand side.

"Also the fact that the Liberals are quite centrist - but I think their position makes sense."

He said the tool had allowed voters to learn more about minor parties and independents.

"The tool puts them at the same level as the candidates of the bigger parties," he said.

"Voters will learn much more about them which adds to possibility they may decide on them at the ballot box."

About 77 per cent of candidates chose to complete the survey, a comparatively high uptake to similar tools

However five Liberal candidates across two seats did not take part.

Professor Dumont said this was astonishing, particularly because the candidates were in battleground seats.

"It might be a strategic move but at the same time the users cannot see them, so it might also be detrimental to their electoral success," he said.

Among those who did not complete the form were Giulia Jones, a sitting member in Murrumbidgee, and Elizabeth Kikkert, a sitting member in Ginninderra. They both hold socially conservative views.

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Professor Dumont said the data about how voters matched with candidates was not yet available.

But it did show the electoral commission's predictions about how many Canberrans would vote early - about 70 per cent - were spot on.

He said about 70 to 75 per cent of the tool's users planned on voting early, with older voters the most likely to head to the polls early.