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Do-it-Yourself Democracy

Vote in a local council election

  • council votingWas your rubbish picked up this morning?

  • Did you trip over a paving stone on your way down the street?

  • Did you play sport at the weekend?

  • Where did you play and what were the facilities like?

Your local council makes decisions about all of these issues.

Who am I voting for?

In local council elections, you’re voting for the people who’ll represent you on your council.

To find out who your local councillors are at the moment, go to your local council website - a list is provided by the Municipal Association of Victoria (new window) and the Department of Planning and Community Development (new window) has an interactive map where you can find out the name of your local council and a list of the current councillors.

When does it all happen?

Every local council across Victoria, from the City of Casey to the Shire of Yarriambiack is elected at the same time – in November every four years.

The most recent local council elections were in November 2008 and the next ones will be in November 2012.

If a local councillor resigns or dies then a by-election is held for that position, or the ballot papers from the last election are re-counted to see which candidate came second. This is called a countback.

How do I vote in a local election?

Local council elections can be run using postal voting or attendance voting.

Councils choose which one they want to use before each election. Ballot papers look the same, and voters mark them in the same way, for both systems of vote counting.

Visit the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) website for more on these two ways of voting (new window).

Either way, you will be given a ballot paper which looks like the image at the top of this page.

All you need to do is place a 1 in the box next to your preferred candidate, and then number all of the remaining boxes in the order of your preference.

How are votes counted?

Your local council may be divided into wards with one or ore councillors representing each ward. If there’s only one vacancy in a ward, votes are counted using the full preferential system.

If there’s more than one vacancy in a ward, or if your local council is not divided into wards, then votes are counted using the proportional representation system.

Visit the VEC website for more on these voting systems (new window).

Links

Victorian Electoral Commission

Victorian Electoral Commission

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