Proportionality and magnitude at the NSW council 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...
NSW council elections – iVote takes a big share
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...
Number of women on NSW councils shoots up
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...
Councillors elected per party, and the rise of parties in regional NSW
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...
Wagga Wagga’s very close referendum
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...
Mapping the Dubbo referendum
One of the most interesting contests at the 2021 council elections was the referendum on abolishing the wards for Dubbo Regional Council.
The council was founded in 2016 as a merger of the old Dubbo council and its neighbour Wellington. Dubbo makes up the vast...
Council party trends, updated
This is a quick post updating this post from shortly after the council elections with the final results after the conclusion of the count.
I won't do much more analysis on the trends, but it's worth noting the final totals. Across Greater Sydney, the Labor...
Turnout up, informal down
With the final election results declared by Wednesday, I've finally been able to calculate the informal and turnout rates.
There's been a lot of discussion about informal rates being high, but this was premature. The early results included a lot of complex ballots in the...
NSW council elections – some of the closest results
All election results for the NSW council elections have now been declared, but some seats have been so close that there have been attempts to call for recounts. It seems very unlikely that any of these results could be overturned, particularly with the switch...
NSW council elections thread
That's it for the liveblog. I will be back with further analysis tomorrow.
Wednesday 2:07pm - The last eight of the big councils have reported this morning:
Hornsby - The Liberal Party won the mayoralty on Monday, but have now confirmed a solid majority on...