The Tally Room

Polls have opened for election day for the NSW local government elections. I won't be posting any analysis until after polls close at 6pm, but you can post your thoughts here.

The Australian Electoral Commission today announced the final decisions on boundaries for the NSW federal redistribution. As with the Victorian and Western Australian announcements last week, the AEC is yet to publish maps, digital boundary files or SA1 data. With the council election coming...

Last week I wrote an analysis piece about the different shape of ballot papers in different parts of New South Wales - the urban areas and some large rural councils have above-the-line voting, small rural councils have a single column of ungrouped candidates, and...

If a council in New South Wales wants to change the number of councillors who sit on that council, they need to hold a referendum, with voters making the final decision. In 2024, four councils are holding referendums on reducing the size of their council....

Most candidates running in the NSW council elections are independents, or belong to the three big urban parties. Over 58% of candidates running for the council election are either independent or unaffiliated. 14% of candidates were nominated by the ALP, 9.9% by the Greens, and...

We're now less than two months out from the Queensland state election, and the ACT election. So it seemed about the right time to unlock those election guides for everyone to read. But while that means two less exclusive benefits for Patreon donors, I'm launching...

The Australian Electoral Commission yesterday announced the final decision for the federal redistributions in Victoria and Western Australia. Unfortunately the AEC hasn't yet published the maps, digital boundary files or data matching each SA1 to each electorate. While it may be possible to estimate these,...

  Ben is joined by the Sydney Morning Herald urban affairs reporter Anthony Segaert to preview the upcoming New South Wales local government elections. We discuss some of the most interesting elections, the impact of the NSW Liberal absence and local party systems. Sorry for the...

When the NSW Minister for Local Government, Ron Hoenig, announced an inquiry into the City of Liverpool in July, it seemed clear that the council was headed down the path seen by councils like Shellharbour, Warringah, Wingecarribee, Wollongong and Central Coast in the past....

NSW local government elections are conducted using single transferable vote proportional representation, but the actual shape of the ballot paper differs depending on who runs, and whether they run as a group. This is a somewhat elegant way to allow for the same system to...