2024 NSW Local Government elections: Political participants bulletin No.6

Bulletin No.6 
Issued 12 August 2024

Nominations close at 12 noon Wednesday

The nomination lodgement period ends at 12 noon, Wednesday, 14 August 2024.  

Any nomination forms or deposits received after that time cannot be accepted.

Please note:

• the deadline is set by legislation and cannot be extended under any circumstances, even for a few minutes
• being registered with the NSW Electoral Commission for electoral funding purposes is a different process to being nominated – registered candidates and groups must also nominate for the election by the end of the nomination period.

Candidates and registered political parties are strongly encouraged to lodge their nomination online using the Nomination Online Management System (NOMS).   

Access NOMS.

Successfully completing a nomination online

We have noted some common issues and errors that are being made with completing nominations.  

Please ensure:

• All forms are signed by the candidate (where shown)
• Section 1 of the Candidate Information Sheet is mandatory and must be completed
• The statutory declaration in the Candidate Information Sheet must be
  • only witnessed by an authorised witness, being a justice of the peace, public notary or lawyer – view more information
  • signed and dated by the candidate and authorised witness on the same date
• All candidate nomination forms and group forms are lodged and paid together
• To make a final check that the information on the signed nomination form is identical to what has been entered and uploaded to NOMS.

There is now very limited time for candidates to correct omissions or other errors.

Any candidate who has already lodged their nomination but wishes to amend any of the information on their signed nomination form must urgently contact the Candidate helpdesk on 1300 022 011.

Reminder: close of registrations for candidates and groups 12 noon Wednesday, 14 August

Candidates and groups that have not registered for electoral funding purposes by 12 noon on Wednesday, 14 August will be deemed registered once they are formally nominated by the Returning Officer on Thursday, 15 August. From that time, they can lawfully accept political donations and make payment for electoral expenditure. The NSW Electoral Commission will email these candidates confirmation of their registration as well as information about their applicable electoral expenditure cap. The register of candidates and register of groups of candidates for the election are published on the website.

Candidate details published on website

The details of the candidates for the election have been published on our website as the review of their nomination is completed. This is published under Who are the candidates?

The information displayed for each candidate includes:

• their name as it will appear on the ballot paper
• the local government area and ward (if applicable) for which they are nominated
• the suburb, town or other locality of their place of residence
• the affiliation to a registered party or independent
• the contact details that have been provided for public display.

The candidate information sheet for accepted candidates will be updated once the ballot paper draw is completed.

Ballot paper draw

The draw to determine the order of candidates’ names on the ballot paper for each election will be conducted at the respective Returning Officer’s office from 2pm on Thursday, 15 August 2024, the day after the close of nominations. Candidates or their representatives, registered political parties, media and members of the public are welcome to attend the draw.

Locations for the Returning Officer’s office are available on our website.

After the ballot paper draw, the candidate information sheets will be displayed on the website under ‘Who are the candidates?’ in the same running order as the candidate running order of the ballot paper.

This will be published on the website, the afternoon of Thursday, 15 August 2024.

Ballot paper templates will be published on the website from Monday, 19 August, as they become available under the electoral material section of the website.

Local Government election regulations amended

Recent regulation changes for the 2024 NSW Local government elections have been made, including: 

• Filming or photographing election officials and scrutineers is unlawful: it is now an offence to film or photograph election officials and scrutineers while performing their duties in a way that would likely make the official/scrutineer feel intimidated or harassed.
• Publishing or distributing such videos or images is also an offence.  
• Health and safety directions may be given at voting centres: election managers and polling place managers now have the ability to give health and safety directions at any election or place where voting is occurring, to maintain order and/or protect the health and safety of staff and voters. 

Please refer to our website for the full summary list of changes, and more information. 

Campaign accounts

A reminder that candidates and groups must open a campaign account before accepting $1,000 or more in political donations or incurring $1,000 in electoral expenditure. All political donations made to, or for the benefit of, a candidate or group, which are used to incur electoral expenditure, must be paid into the campaign account and electoral expenditure must be paid from the campaign account. 

If a candidate or group has a campaign account open from a previous election, the account must be cleared before being used for the 2024 election. Any balance left in the account from the previous election must be dispersed in accordance with the rules, as outlined on our website. 

Third-party campaigners must open a campaign account before paying for electoral expenditure incurred during the capped expenditure period (1 July 2024 to election day). 

Further information about operating a campaign account is available on our website.

Registration of electoral material for distributing on election day

All electoral material that is to be distributed (handed out) on election day by political parties, groups, candidates, and any other persons or organisations, must be registered with the NSW Electoral Commission.

It is an offence to distribute electoral material on election day unless the material has been registered. ‘Distribution’ also means leaving electoral material in a position and circumstances to indicate that it is intended to be available for collection by members of the public in a public place.

The registration of electoral material will commence at the close of nominations and will close at 5pm Friday, 6 September 2024.

More information about preparing and registering electoral material and venue projections can be found on our website, including detailed information about the legislative requirements for electoral material in the Candidate handbook.

Re-use of election material

Election material produced for a previous election may be re-used, however the expenditure on any election material that was produced for the previous election campaign is subject to the expenditure cap for the 2024 local government elections, if it is re-used and distributed during the capped expenditure period, which is from 1 July and ends on election day, 14 September 2024. It is important that you keep records that allow for the portion of the material used at each election to be quantified. This expenditure must be disclosed in your 2024/2025 annual electoral expenditure disclosure. More information is available on our website.

Community education resources webpage now available 

The NSW Electoral Commission has developed a community education resources webpage for the 2024 NSW Local Government elections. The webpage includes a range of engaging, easy to understand resources Councils can use to raise awareness and support access to voting for the upcoming 2024 NSW Local Government election such as:

• general awareness animated videos, which cover topics such as:
  1. enrolling to vote
  2. how to fill in ballot papers  
  3. voting options
  4. how to vote by post
  5. how votes are counted
• fact sheets and posters
• social media tiles and newsletter copy
• stock images.

In-language stakeholder kits

In language stakeholder packs are now available to be downloaded and shared. They are a compilation of the key information and resources available for culturally and linguistically diverse voters:

• Arabic stakeholder pack (PDF 0.6MB)

• Chinese Simplified (Mandarin) stakeholder pack (PDF 6MB)

• Chinese Traditional (Cantonese) stakeholder pack (PDF 8MB)

• Greek stakeholder pack (PDF 0.6MB)

• Italian stakeholder pack (PDF 0.5MB)

• Korean stakeholder pack (PDF 0.6MB)

• Vietnamese stakeholder pack (PDF 0.6MB)

We encourage you to share these resources through your networks.

Applications for postal voting are open

Electors can apply online or by downloading and printing a form available for the 2024 NSW Local Government elections.

Postal vote packs will be sent to electors from Monday, 19 August 2024.  

General postal voters automatically receive a postal vote for each election.

Postal vote applications returned to political participants

All applications must be received by the NSW Electoral Commission by 5pm on Monday, 9 September 2024. Applications received after this time cannot be accepted.

Completed postal vote applications returned by electors directly to a political participant must be sent to the NSW Electoral Commission for processing as soon as possible, to ensure applications are processed and postal votes distributed to electors in a timely manner. Further details about the application return process will be provided in a separate email.

Please contact pva@elections.nsw.gov.au should you require assistance with postal vote applications.