Victorian election 2018: the undecided voters in the crucial seats

Ms Kaires has tended to vote "how my parents vote", she says, "which is usually Greens or Labor".

But she's noticed all the posters and social posts about voting Liberal "which makes me question if I want to change preferences".

The issues that matter to her are the upgrading of Punt Road. She also considers health and childcare "because I’m from a single parent family and I’ve seen what it was like for my mum and how the government supported her''. She's interested in cost of living, "which was something that was brought up by the Liberals".

The last time she voted, it was for the Greens because "I knew that was what my mum voted for."

"I’m pretty undecided and if nothing jumps out at me, I’ll most likely vote Greens."

Ripon, held by the Liberals on a margin of 0.8%

Murray Walker, 81, artist

Mr Walker, an artist, anthropologist and writer based in the small town of Beaufort, says he will most likely decide how to vote on the day - like a lot of people in his town.

Beaufort, 160km north-west of Melbourne on the Western Highway, is used to tight contests.

“It’s a marvellously interesting seat, but it’s been a bit of a non-campaign,” said Mr Walker.

He is on a committee fighting to save the town’s historical primary school from being sold off by the Department of Education.

After it had served the local community for 150 years, students were moved out of the school in 2014. Mr Walker said he and many of the town’s residents would like to see the site preserved and turned into a community hub with artists in residence.

He is disappointed neither of the major-party candidates have made any promises to save the school.

“The plan to save the school has been overwhelmingly endorsed by locals, but neither the local council nor the government seem prepared to help.”

Neither candidate, he says, has addressed what would happen to the town once a planned bypass is built.

“The current member [Louise Staley] has not performed in a way that has benefited the seat. Like a lot of people, I’ll probably decide on the day. But I’m leaning towards (Labor candidate Sarah) DeSantis.”

Cranbourne, held by Labor on 2.3%

Barinder Singh, 34, taxi driver

Mr Singh lives in Cranbourne West with his wife and two young children.

He has not decided how to vote yet but he predicts a tight race in Cranbourne.

“There is tough competition around here,” he said.

Cranbourne, 50km south-east of Melbourne, is Victoria’s fastest-growing electorate, enrolments jumping 35 per cent since 2014.

Mr Singh trained as a lawyer in India before he moved to Australia in 2008.

He is disillusioned with the major parties at both the state and federal levels and would like to see a greater voice for the local Punjabi community in Cranbourne.

For this reason, he said he and his friends were considering voting for Tarlochan Singh (no relation)  the Indian veterinarian who is contesting the seat for Transport Matters.

“I want one of our representatives to be from our community... [someone] who looks like us, who thinks like us, who raises a voice about what we feel,” said Mr Singh.

As a taxi driver, Mr Singh also said it was very appealing that Transport Matters’ policies aimed at levelling the playing field between taxis and ride-sharing companies like Uber.

Mr Singh is also concerned about the cost of living at a time when he said taxi drivers' wages were decreasing. He said the cost of energy, water bills and council rates were all a concern.

He agreed that law and order were also an important election issue. His friend’s car had been broken into recently and the police had not been able to do anything about it.

Mr Singh is a member of the Casey Cultural Club, which hosts events for the local Indian community. He said the club members were frustrated by red tape and the sums they had to pay to rent facilities, despite paying large sums in rates to the local council.

Mr Singh said: “No one just gives us permission. They just say 'no, blah, blah,blah', you know, like, silly excuses. So, that's why we're pissed off. That's why we just want to tell this government, we are not favouring you, on this matter.”