2024 NSW Local Government elections: Political participants bulletin No.11

Bulletin No.11
Issued 12 September 2024

Election day

Voting is open from 8am to 6pm on Saturday, 14 September 2024.

Electors can use the address lookup tool to identify their local council and find information about the polling places at which they can vote.

A full list of locations and projections for polling places is available on our website.

Helpdesks on election day

The following helpdesks will be available on election day from 8am to 6pm to answer candidate and elector enquiries:

• Candidate helpdesk – 1300 022 011 or email candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au
• Elector enquiries – 1300 135 736 or email enquiries@elections.nsw.gov.au

Candidate workers on election day

Party or candidate workers distribute electoral material (how-to-vote material) on behalf of candidates, political parties and others. They are not required to complete any appointment forms to engage in this task.

Parties, candidates and party or candidate workers should refer to the Scrutineer and party/candidate worker guidelines for polling places published on our website.

Reporting allegations about electoral material on election day

Concerns that electoral material might be unlawful can be reported in writing by email to candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au. This email will be monitored on election day.

Reports should not be made by telephone to the candidate helpdesk or any other number on election day.

A report should include a clear image of the electoral material. For electoral material published online, including on social media platforms, a URL link and/or the name of the social media account and a screenshot should be provided. An emailed report will be acknowledged and managed in accordance with our policies, which are published on our website. The focus on election day will be on remediating identified issues.

Concerns about electoral material displayed or distributed at polling places on election day may also be raised directly with polling place managers.

Scrutineering

Scrutineers must be appointed in writing using the LG.213 Appointment of scrutineer form.

A scrutineer may only be appointed by a candidate. Scrutineers must present a completed appointment form each day and at each location they attend.

For information about the role of a scrutineer during scrutiny and counting, parties, candidates and scrutineers should refer to the scrutineer guidelines for scrutiny and counting published on our website.

Counting and results

Detailed information about the counting of votes and determination of results is available on our website, including:

• an overview of the initial counts beginning on election night, the check counts after election day, and the distribution of preferences to determine the elected candidates
• postal votes and pre-poll venues to be counted on election night
• the timeline and locations of scrutiny and counting, including postal and declaration votes.

Counting videos

The following training videos are available to familiarise candidates, party workers and scrutineers with election day count processes.

• Counting brief in a polling place after 6pm
• Initial Count of Councillor ballot papers with Group Voting Squares
• Initial Count of Councillor ballot papers with no Group Voting Squares
• Initial Count of Mayoral ballot papers

Candidate information webinars

The counting and results webinar held on Tuesday, 10 September has been published on our website.

Recordings of all previous webinars for the 2024 NSW Local government elections are available on our website.

You may also register for our webinar on post-election disclosure obligations, to be held on Tuesday, 15 October 2024.