The Tally Room

There is one unique feature of tomorrow's by-elections in four NSW state electorates: postal ballots have been sent to every registered voter. Standard practice requires voters to request a ballot, but the problems with iVote at the December council elections prompted the NSW Electoral...

Ben was joined by Stewart Jackson to discuss this weekend's by-elections in the NSW state electorates of Bega, Monaro, Strathfield and Willoughby. This podcast is supported by the Tally Room's supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support. You can...

Nominations were declared yesterday morning for the four state by-elections to be held in NSW on February 12. I've now posted the candidate lists on the seat guides, which you can see at the links below: Bega Monaro Strathfield Willoughby I thought there were a few...

I have recently completed my latest election guide, covering the 2022 state election in Victoria, which is due for 26 November. The guide features profiles of all 88 Legislative Assembly electorates and the eight Legislative Council regions. Each guide features a number of maps along...

A new feature of the NSW local government electoral system is being introduced right now across many NSW councils, finally implementing a legislative change made in 2014. This change will see vacancies filled by countback of the original ballot papers, rather than a by-election....

I keep banging on about the importance of magnitude in determining how elections work. The number of councillors elected for each ward at the NSW council election has a major influence on each council's party system and how votes translate into seats. Indeed the...

Last year's NSW council elections were the first council elections to use iVote, the online voting platform. It proved to be a popular option, which caused problems with the platform being overwhelmed by late registrations on election day, leading to many voters not being...

The 2021 NSW council elections produced a step change in the number of women elected to local councils. The numbers not only went up, but it was the highest increase that I could find on record. The numbers appear to have reached some kind...

Last week I updated my blog post analysing the vote for the bigger parties across Greater Sydney, with a map showing vote and swings. In the process of doing other analysis I realised I hadn't actually looked at the numbers of councillors elected. There's also...

As my last blog post of the year, I thought I would focus on the closest of all the referendums held alongside the council elections. Wagga Wagga held a referendum about switching to directly electing the mayor. Similar referendums in Bega Valley and Ryde...