2023 NSW State election: Political participants bulletin No.6
Issued 6 February 2023
On this page
1. Nominations
To stand as a candidate and have your name included on the ballot paper for the election you must lodge a completed nomination form and pay the nomination deposit fee during the nomination lodgement period. The nomination lodgement period commences Monday, 27 February and closes at 12 noon on Wednesday, 8 March 2023. Nomination forms, grouping forms or amendments to nomination or grouping forms will not be accepted after this time.
Registration is a separate process to nominating as a candidate and does not mean that a person is eligible to be nominated as a candidate for an election. Registration as a candidate or group is for the purposes of the candidate or group accepting political donations or making payments for electoral expenditure.
Lodging your nomination online
The nomination online management system (NOMS) is available now to allow time to prepare nomination forms prior to commencement of the lodgement period on Monday, 27 February 2023. Candidates and parties are strongly encouraged to lodge their nomination online.
Using the online system will:
automatically verify the enrolment of candidates and nominators
assist in minimising errors and omissions by ensuring all compulsory sections of the nomination form have been completed
allow candidates and/or registered political parties, administrators and groups to oversee and manage the progress of each nomination
allow for the nomination form and deposit (paid using Visa or Mastercard) to be lodged online, and
allow for automated messaging from the NSW Electoral Commission to the candidate or party about the acceptance or rejection of each nomination.
An overview of NOMS was provided at our webinar held on Thursday, 2 February 2023. You can find out more about the webinar series, view recorded webinars and register your attendance for upcoming webinars.
Note: the strict legislative requirement that candidates and their nominators must be enrolled correctly as at 6pm on Monday, 6 March means no final confirmation that a nomination is valid can be emailed prior to Tuesday, 7 March.
Lodging your nomination in person
If a candidate is unable to use NOMS, nomination forms can be lodged in person. Nomination forms are available from the NSW Electoral Commission website, or by contacting the Candidate Helpdesk on 1300 022 011 or email candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au. A candidate nominating for the Legislative Assembly can lodge their nomination at the Election Manager’s office for the district in which they are nominating. Office addresses and opening hours will be available on our website from Monday, 27 February 2023.
A candidate or registered political party seeking to lodge nominations for the Legislative Council can do so at the NSW Electoral Commission’s head office. Please note to lodge a nomination at head office, an appointment must be made in advance by contacting the Candidate Helpdesk on 1300 022 011 or email candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au.
Nomination deposit
Legislative Assembly
A nomination deposit of $250 is required for each candidate nominating for the Legislative Assembly.
Legislative Council
A nomination deposit of $500 is required for each candidate nominating for the Legislative Council. The nomination deposit is capped at $5,000 for a Legislative Council group of between 10 and 21 candidates.
Payment of nomination deposit
The nomination deposit must be paid at the time of lodging a nomination.
When the nomination is lodged through NOMS, the nomination deposit can be paid electronically by Visa or Mastercard. If the nomination is lodged in person the deposit must be paid in cash, by bank cheque or credit union or building society cheque made out to the NSW Electoral Commission.
2. Half-yearly political donation disclosures due Monday, 13 February
Half-yearly political donation disclosures for the period 1 July to 31 December 2022 are due on Monday, 13 February 2023.
Disclosures must be lodged by all political parties, elected members, candidates, groups of candidates, associated entities, and third-party campaigners.
Half-yearly disclosures must include all political donations made or received during the half-year period, except those already disclosed in a pre-election period disclosure.
If you did not make or receive any political donations in the half-year period, or you have reported all political donations in pre-election period disclosures, you are still required to make a ‘nil’ disclosure.
Submit half-yearly disclosures using Funding and Disclosure Online.
Alternatively, disclosure forms can be downloaded from our website.
More information about disclosing half-yearly donations.
3. Candidate and political participant information webinars
The next webinar relates to third-party campaigners, at 11am Friday, 10 February 2023 – and will cover the following topics:
changes to electoral funding laws
third-party campaigner registration and official agent responsibilities
electoral expenditure caps, including state-wide cap
campaign account and record keeping
political donations and disclosure of donations
electoral material
registration of electoral material
Find information about the webinar series and register your attendance for upcoming webinars. If you are unable to attend, please note that webinars are recorded and published on the NSW Electoral Commission website.
4. Postal vote applications
Postal vote applications opened Monday,16 January 2023. Electors can apply online, over the phone or by downloading and printing a form available on NSW Electoral Commission website.
Any candidate or registered political party intending to distribute postal vote applications to electors must use the approved form. To request a copy of the approved form, please email candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au. It is recommended that a copy of your final artwork is provided to the NSW Electoral Commission for review to ensure that all legislative requirements have been met prior to going to print.
Completed postal vote applications returned directly to you must be delivered to the NSW Electoral Commission as soon as possible to ensure they are processed, and ballot papers are distributed to electors, in a timely manner. Applications must be received by the NSW Electoral Commission by 6pm on Monday, 20 March 2023.
To support the return process a member of the postal voting team will liaise with candidates and registered political parties who submitted artwork. For more information please contact pva@elections.nsw.gov.au.
Postal vote scrutiny and extraction
Initial scrutiny of postal vote certificates will commence at 9am on Monday, 20 March 2023 at the Centralised Postal Vote Count Centre. Scrutineers are welcome to attend.
Initial scrutiny includes examination of the elector’s postal vote certificate and enrolment information to determine if the postal vote can be accepted.
The initial count of postal ballot papers will commence from 6pm on election day.
5. Voting centre locations and projections
Voting centre and early voting centre locations, including projections, are now available on our website, under step 5 of the six steps to being a candidate.
Once opening hours for early voting centres are determined, the times will be available on our website using the Find my electorate tool. You can view them in map or list form for each State district.
The list of locations will be updated as additional venues are secured. Please note that an error regarding the commencement of early voting was published on the website last week. This has now been rectified, with the first date of early voting being Saturday, 18 March 2023.