The recent round of Brimbank Council elections have proven to be as interesting as predicted. There was the usual range of shit-sheets and a large number of stooge candidates, especially in Horseshoe Bend and Grasslands wards. Although what wasn’t predicted was how quiet the day actually was in terms of the number of people voting and the diminished hordes of people handing out how-to-vote cards (most which spruiked the candidate as being Labor despite the Victorian ALP not endorsing candidates for local government elections) for so-called independent candidates.
But on November 29, voters in Brimbank cast their votes to elect new councillors for the next 4 years. And the results truly speak for themselves in many ways.
Let’s have a quick look at the results from the 4 wards – 3 wards electing 3 councillors; 1 ward electing 2 councillors:
Grasslands Ward (3 vacancies)
Total enrolled voters: 33,241
Voter turnout: 26,219
Formal vote: 20,617
Informal vote: 5,602
Quota: 5,155
Harvester Ward (3 vacancies)
Total enrolled voters: 32,000
Voter turnout: 23,254
Formal vote: 20,965
Informal vote: 2,289
Quota: 5,242
Horseshoe Bend Ward (2 vacancies)
Total enrolled voters: 23,026
Voter turnout: 17,948
Formal vote: 15,074
Informal vote: 2,874
Quota: 5,025
Taylors Ward (3 vacancies)
Total enrolled voters: 35,145
Voter turnout: 28,674
Formal vote: 24,857
Informal vote: 3,817
Quota: 6,215
In my humble opinion the results illustrate either just a complete disdain for the whole thing and the candidates on offer or the municipality’s election promotional and educational materials being inadequate. (One of the worst experiences of polling day was dealing with confused people from outside the municipality not sure of what was happening or whether they had voted.) However, it’s not entirely the fault of the Victorian Electoral Commission, local municipalities seemed to be remiss in assisting in the distributing promotional and educational materials about how residents and ratepayers were voting in their particular municipality. And undoubtedly the budget for materials and advertising was very small due to government budget cut-backs. Seriously though, something we make a big deal about and is all important, democracy, should have adequate amounts of money allocated to the Commissions charged with encouraging, nurturing and protecting our democracy.
In the new year the new look Brimbank City Council will be on display and hopefully preparing to tackle the many issues ignored by previous Councils. One of the supposedly big issues was whether or not the combination of councillors, given the ALP factional and sub-factional splits, would be able to work together (leaving the sole Greens councillor stuck in the middle); time will tell.
Filed under: Campaigns, Rants & Raves, elections | Tagged: ALP, Australia, ballot, ballot box, ballot paper, Brimbank, electorates, Grasslands Ward, Greens, Harvester Ward, Horseshoe Bend Ward, independent, Liberals, local government, local issues, Melbourne, politics, polling day, Taylors Ward, Victoria, voters, voting, wards
