2024 Epping, Hornsby and Pittwater State by-elections bulletin No.2
Bulletin No.2
Issued 24 September 2024
On this page
Information for candidates, parties and scrutineers
Please refer to information about the 2024 Epping, Hornsby and Pittwater State by-elections available on the NSW Electoral Commission website.
This includes a checklist of key requirements for candidates and parties and the candidate handbook that contains information about election processes and regulatory obligations for candidates, political parties and scrutineers.
Nominations
Nominations open Friday, 27 September and close at 12 noon, Thursday, 3 October 2024.
Each nomination form must also be accompanied by a $250 nomination deposit in the form of cash or bank/building society cheque. Personal cheques cannot be accepted.
Nomination forms, changes to nomination forms or nomination deposits received after 12 noon, Thursday, 3 October 2024 cannot be accepted. This includes nomination forms received before 12 noon, but:
- contain material errors or omissions that were not corrected by the candidate or party before 12 noon, or
- the nomination deposit was not received by 12 noon.
You may be nominated by either:
- a registered political party, or
- 25 electors enrolled for the relevant electoral district as at 6 pm on the date of issue of the writ for the by-election
A registered political party or candidate must lodge a nomination using one of the following forms, available from our website:
- SEBY.202 Registered Political Party candidate nomination or
- SEBY.201 Nomination of a candidate by 25 electors
A nomination is not valid unless it is accompanied by a child protection declaration. The child protection declaration is included in each of the above forms. The child protection declarations of all candidates must be made public on the NSW Electoral Commission website.
Nominations can only be lodged as follows:
- In person at the Election manager’s office. The Election manager’s office opening hours and contact details will be available on our website during the nomination lodgement period.
- In person at the NSW Electoral Commission’s head office, 231 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. Please contact the Candidate helpdesk on 1300 022 011 or by email candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au to make an appointment.
To ensure nominations are received within the strict, legislated timeframes, we recommend not lodging a nomination by post. Online lodgement is not available for the by-elections.
More information can be found in the Nomination section of the Candidate handbook.
Ballot paper draw
The draw to determine the order of candidates’ names on the ballot paper will be conducted at the Election manager’s office for each district from 10am on Friday, 4 October 2024. Candidates or their representatives, registered political parties, media and members of the public are welcome to attend the draws.
Reminder: Electoral funding requirements
Candidates who intend to accept political donations or make payments for electoral expenditure prior to being nominated must be registered for electoral funding purposes. Applications for registration are open now and can be made using Funding and Disclosure Online. Registrations for candidates close 12 noon on Thursday, 3 October 2024.
See Bulletin #1 for more information.
Regulated period for electoral material
The regulated period for the 2024 Epping, Hornsby and Pittwater State by-elections is Friday, 27 September 2024 to 6pm on election day, Saturday, 19 October 2024.
During the regulated period, all electoral material (including how-to-vote material) must meet the requirements of the legislation.
For example, a person must not, during the regulated election period, print, publish, distribute or publicly display electoral material without legibly showing on the material:
- the name and address of the individual on whose instructions the material was printed, published, distributed or displayed, and
- if the material has been printed, the name of the printer and the street address of the premises at which it was printed.
The address of a person means a full street address and suburb or locality in Australia at which the person can usually be contacted during the day. A post office box number or a DX number cannot be used as the address.
Other legislative requirements apply to electoral material. Please refer to the electoral material section of the Candidate handbook and watch our Electoral material rules and Registration of electoral material videos to learn more.
It is a criminal offence for electoral material to contravene the requirements of NSW electoral laws. The NSW Electoral Commission can investigate and take enforcement action about breaches of electoral laws.
Candidate information webinar
A webinar for candidates and political participants for the Epping, Hornsby and Pittwater State by-elections will be held at 11am on Wednesday, 25 September 2024.
This webinar will cover the following topics:
- key dates
- electoral funding and disclosure
- nominations and ballot paper draw
- electoral material
- voting options
- candidate workers and scrutineers
- counting and results.
Candidate helpdesk
The helpdesk for candidates, registered political parties and other political participants is available on 1300 022 011 or candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au from:
- 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday
- 8am to 6pm on Saturday, 12 October (the start of early voting) and
- 7am to 6pm on election day Saturday, 19 October 2024.
All enquiries relating to the nomination and registration processes, the ballot paper draw, electoral material, scrutineers, candidate workers and counting and results should be directed to the Candidate helpdesk.
Email enquiries about candidate and third-party campaigner electoral funding registrations and the rules that apply to political donations and electoral expenditure can be directed to fdc@elections.nsw.gov.au
All other email enquiries by political parties, candidates and other political participants should be sent using our Contact us form.