Today I’m announcing a new project, one I haven’t done before and was quite a bit of work.
I have prepared profiles of the 16 most populous councils in Victoria. I’m hoping this will be the first instalment and I can do some or all of the next 17, but we’ll have to see how much can get done over the next two months before the October elections.
The guides are more difficult to complete than in NSW because partisan affiliations are less clear, and there are no booths to map.
For each guide I have included a list of candidates, with their partisan affiliation outside of all-independent councils, a description of the wards of the council, and of the changes where the wards have been redrawn. I have also included short historical sections and tried my best to summarise which faction or group of councillors seems to be in control of a council by analysing how councillors have voted on mayoral ballots.
In some councils I have been able to include a table of results for each party group in the council, but only where I have felt confident that I have been able to identify all of the party members running. In many councils that wasn’t the case, so I didn’t publish incomplete figures. My thanks to Leo Puglisi and whoever has been working on publishing election results on Wikipedia for this.
I have not published any results maps for the previous council elections, but I have redistributed the results of the 2022 federal election to the new wards and have included a map showing how those votes break down by ward.
I haven’t paywalled any of these guides, but if you find this useful I’d appreciate your support via Patreon.
| Boroondara | Kingston | Mornington Peninsula |
| Brimbank | Knox | Whitehorse |
| Casey | Melton | Whittlesea |
| Greater Dandenong | Merri-bek | Wyndham |
| Greater Geelong | Monash | Yarra Ranges |
| Hume |
This map shows the councils which have been profiled in green. Councils which I would like to profile are in blue. You can click on a council to find the link to the profile, along with some other information.
Thanks so much for making this Ben!!! It means a lot to me, especially with this election approaching.
Just one point, currently Monash council links to Melton, and Melton will not show up.
Thanks Darcy, that’s fixed.
The VEC says they are mailing ballots for the MCC election but I have had issues with receiving mail as I am in an apartment, are you aware of anyway I can vote in person or is this election only mail-in ballots? If so, should I contact them and ask if I can collect the ballot myself and mail-it back? I do not want to be fined because I didn’t receive my ballot.
You can vote in person at your ‘local election office’ if you have no access to mail, the addresses of which will be public on Monday the 9th of September.
@Ben Raue are you only releasing guides for warded councils? If not then can you make one for Melbourne City Council please?
I have released guides for councils with 150k+ population. Melbourne’s population in 2021 was 149,615, so they are next in the queue. I suspect I will end up getting to them. Won’t be much to include without wards, though.
“This map shows the councils which have been profiled in green. Councils which I would like to profile are in green.”
I kinda like the idea of single-member wards. Queensland has it in some councils and now Victoria has them. NSW should do the same. I don’t mind multi-member wards but I prefer single-member wards.