Northern Tablelands State by-election bulletin No.2

Bulletin No.2 
Issued 6 June 2024

Reminder close of nominations

Nominations close at 12 noon, Thursday, 6 June 2024.

Nominations can only be lodged as follows:

• In person at the NSW Electoral Commission’s head office, 231 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, by prior appointment by contacting the candidate helpdesk on 1300 022 011 or by email to candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au.
• In person at the election manager’s office 214 Beardy Street Armidale. The election manager’s office opening hours and contact details are available on our website.

Each nomination must be accompanied by a $250 nomination deposit in the form of cash or bank/building society cheque. Personal cheques cannot be accepted.

Nomination forms or deposits received after 12 noon, Thursday, 6 June 2024 cannot be accepted. 

This includes:

• Nomination forms received before 12 noon but that contain material errors or omissions that were not identified and corrected by the candidate or party before 12 noon,
• Nomination forms received before 12 noon where the nomination deposit was not received by 12 noon.

Being nominated is not the same as being registered with the NSW Electoral Commission for electoral funding purposes. You must separately nominate by the time and date above for your name to appear on the ballot paper, even if you have already registered.

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 from 10am on Friday, 7 June 2024.  Candidates or their representatives, registered political parties, media and members of the public are welcome to attend the draw.

Regulated period for electoral material has started

From Friday, 31 May 2024 to 6pm on election day, Saturday, 22 June 2024, all electoral 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 (other than the announcement in a newspaper of the holding of a meeting), 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 an address, including a full street address and suburb or locality that is located 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 section 12 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.

Ballot paper templates

A ballot paper template will be available on our website from 7 June 2024 after the ballot paper draw to assist in the preparation of electoral material.

The template will assist candidates in preparing their electoral material, particularly how-to-vote material. When including a sample of the ballot paper on how-to-vote material, the details must be an accurate representation of the ballot paper, for example, the spelling of candidates’ names, registered political party names and the inclusion of the word ‘Independent’. This information must appear exactly as it will be on the ballot paper for the election. Partial representations of the ballot paper may be accepted.

Social media authorisation

Political parties, candidates and third-party campaigners should ensure their staff are aware of the authorisation requirements in relation to electoral material when posting publicly on social media during the regulated period. Further information is available on our website, in the candidate handbook and in the candidate information webinar for the by-election.

Registration of electoral material 

The registration of electoral material period commences Thursday, 6 June 2024 and closes 5pm, Friday, 14 June 2024. 

All electoral material that is to be distributed on election day by registered political parties, candidates, and any other persons or organisations, must be registered with the NSW Electoral Commission. "Distribution" also means the placement of electoral material in a public place that can be collected by voters.
 
 It is an offence to distribute electoral material on election day unless the material has been registered.

The online system for registration of electoral material is not available for this election.

The application to register electoral material form is available on our website. Applicants should complete the form and email the completed form with a copy of the electoral material to candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au.

The following types of electoral material do not need to be registered (but must comply with the legislative requirements noted above):

• posters or corflutes displayed on election day or early voting days
• any items distributed outside of election day.

Guide to creating accessible documents

We encourage all registered electoral material to be made accessible so that electors who are blind or have low vision can use assistive technology to support access to the materials.
 
Please refer to the Accessibility guide for assistance.

Display of registered electoral material on website

Registered electoral material will be displayed on the NSW Electoral Commission website from Tuesday, 11 June 2024 until 6pm on election day.
 
Electoral material that is registered prior to the closure of registration of electoral material will be progressively updated on our website.

Venues and projections

Voting centre locations and hours

The locations and opening hours of early voting and election day voting centres are available on the NSW Electoral Commission website under ‘Where do I vote?’

Projections

Early voting and election day voting centre projections are also available on our website, to assist candidates and parties in preparing electoral material and organising candidate workers.

Scrutineers and candidate workers

Scrutineers

Candidates and parties may appoint scrutineers to represent them at any location where voting is carried out, declaration and postal vote envelopes are scrutinised, and where votes are counted.  Section 17 of the candidate handbook provides important information for political participants about scrutineering.

Scrutineers must be appointed in writing by completing a SE.213 Appointment of Scrutineer form available on the website. Scrutineers must complete the declaration on that form each time they attend a scrutineering location.

Candidate workers or volunteers

Candidate workers or volunteers distribute electoral material (such as how-to-vote cards) at early voting centres and election day voting centres on behalf of candidates and/or political parties. The candidate handbook provides more information about this activity.

Candidate workers or volunteers are not required to complete an appointment form to engage in these tasks unless they also wish to act as a scrutineer.

Compliance operation during the voting period

NSW Electoral Commission inspectors may visit voting centres during the early voting period and on election day. These inspectors are monitoring that electoral material and the conduct of candidates, third-party campaigners and their campaign workers comply with the legislation. Directions given by an inspector or other election officials must be complied with.

Candidate helpdesk

The helpdesk for candidates, registered political parties and other political participants is available from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday on 1300 022 011, from 8am to 6pm on Saturday, 15 June 2024 and from 7am to 6pm on election day Saturday, 22 June 2024.

All enquiries relating to the nomination and registration process, the ballot paper draw, electoral material, scrutineers, candidate workers and counting and results should be directed to the candidate helpdesk by email to candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au.

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.