Vote count information

2024 Mid-Western Regional Council by-election

Results website

The results website for the Mid-Western Regional Council by-election will be live from 6pm on Saturday, 7 December 2024.

Initial count results will be published progressively from approximately 6:30pm to 10:30pm Saturday, 7 December 2024.

The result of each count will be published as soon as practicable after completion, in a series of reports:

Mid-Western

• First Preference Votes
• Distribution of Preferences

Returning Officer's office address and hours of operation

Address: The Stables, 82 Market Street, Mudgee NSW

Contact number: (+61 2) 9179 0000

Hours of operation: 9am – 5pm

Election night: Counting will commence at 6pm and cease at 10pm.

Count location and timeline

The following is a guide to the timing and locations of counting. Please note the timetable is subject to change, updates will be published here.
 

Sunday following election day

No counting will occur on the Sunday following election day.

Scrutiny of postal votes

The initial scrutiny of postal votes will be conducted at the Returning Officer’s office. This includes:

• scrutiny of postal vote certificates to determine whether the postal votes are to be accepted.
• extraction of ballot papers from accepted postal votes. The ballot papers will be extracted, unfolded, tallied and stored in securely sealed ballot paper cartons. The ballot papers will not be inspected prior to the initial count.

Postal vote scrutiny and counting cannot be completed until the last day that a postal vote may be received, that is, by 6pm Friday, 20 December 2024.

The initial count of postal votes is comprised of three ‘progressive counts’. The scrutiny timeline is below:

Scrutiny of declaration votes

Declaration votes are:

• Enrolment (including Name Not on Roll): issued to a person omitted from the authorised roll, a person enrolling for the first time, or a person updating their enrolment from their old district to their new district
• Name already marked as voted: issued to an elector who has already been marked as having voted but who claims not to have voted.

These electors are required to complete a written declaration on an envelope and their ballot paper will be placed in this envelope before being placed in a ballot box.

The scrutiny of declaration vote envelopes will be conducted at the Returning Officer’s office. This includes:

• scrutiny of the declaration vote envelopes to determine whether the declaration votes are to be accepted.
• extraction and initial count of ballot papers from accepted declaration vote envelopes.

Declaration Vote Scrutiny, Extraction, and Initial Count Timeline: Monday, 9 December to Thursday, 12 December 2024

Counts overview

The ballot papers will undergo the following counts:

Initial count

The first count of first preference votes is conducted from election night onwards. An initial count is conducted for each venue and vote type (for example, polling places, pre-poll venues, postal votes and declaration votes). The initial count is a manual process.

Ballot papers are examined for formality and sorted to the first preference for each candidate or to the Informals pile, that is, ballot papers where there is no first preference recorded or that cannot be sorted to a candidate as they appear to be informal. 

Note: The Initial Count is considered an indicative count only.

Check count

The check count is the official count that is used in the distribution of preferences to determine the elected candidate. The check count results will be progressively published on the NSW Electoral Commission's results web page, overwriting the initial count results. The check count is a manual process.

The check count comprises the below steps:

• Checking the initial count results: This is the second count of first preference votes. All ballot papers are re-examined to confirm the first preference votes and informals.
• Amalgamation: the ballot papers from all venues/vote types are combined in preparation for the Distribution of Preferences (DoP). If an amalgamation is required, once each venue/vote type is check counted, its ballot papers are amalgamated with the ballot papers of all venue/vote types counted so that each candidate has a consolidated pile of first preference ballot papers and there will be only one consolidated pile of Informals.
  An amalgamation is only necessary if a distribution of preferences is required to determine the elected candidate. To be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority (that is, 50% + 1) of the formal first preference votes in the count. If a candidate has attained an absolute majority, a check count is still required however an amalgamation and a distribution of preferences will not be required.

Distribution of preferences

The distribution of preferences (DoP) to determine the elected candidate can only be conducted after the close of receipt of postal votes and after all check counts are complete.

The DoP will be conducted at the Returning Officer's office at 9am on Saturday, 21 December 2024.

Scrutineers

Please refer to the Scrutineers section on this website for information about the appointment of scrutineers and their role.

Recount

Any request for a recount must:

• be in writing, and 
• be signed by the candidate, and 
• set out the reasons for the request, and  
• be lodged with the Returning Officer within 24 hours of the results being published on the NSW Electoral Commission results website. 

The preferred way to lodge a recount request is by email to both: 

1. the relevant Council’s Returning Officer, and 
2. the NSW Electoral Commission at candidates@elections.nsw.gov.au. 

It is strongly recommended that requestors follow up in person or by telephone with the Returning Officer to confirm their email request has been received.

A candidate who is granted a recount is not required to cover the cost of the recount.

Where a recount is requested and subsequently approved by the Electoral Commissioner, the Declaration of Results will be delayed until the completion of the recount. 

For further details, refer to the Recount Policy LG.566 on this website.

Declaration of results

When all the votes have been counted, the returning officer declares the election in writing, which is an official announcement of the election result. The date of the declaration varies from council to council and depends on the time it takes to count the votes. The declaration will be displayed at the office of the relevant council and the election result will be published on the NSW Electoral Commission website.

Additional information

Understand how local government elections work

How to cast your vote in a local government election

How votes are counted in a local government election