The Local
Government Voting
system - NSW
Our Local
Government system in the area consists of a number of popularly
elected Councillors and popularly elect Mayors. Fairfield Council is made up of
three Wards, each with 4 Councillors. Liverpool has two wards of 5
Councillors. Councillors are elected by a quota system.
 The
voting system - Councillors
The type
of voting used to elect Councillors is a 'proportional' system, with
Councillors elected for a term of 4 years.
Councillors are elected when a Party/Group reaches a specific 'quota' of
votes. Anything left over is distributed. The group voting
system for Council means that if a voter places a
number above a specific 'group', vote will exhaust unless the
voter has specified a second or more choices. This means that
Parties can't 'group direct' as they can in the Feds.
Individuals still have the option of
filling in as many squares as they want 'below-the-line', however most people simply don't take the
time and follow the recommendations of their favoured Party.
Preference
deals are less critical in this system. Unfortunately many so-called
Independents are actually strongly aligned with the ALP or the
Liberals, and we can see a fragmentation of the vote to the
detriment of Parties like the Greens.
Our recommendation is that people look very carefully at the profile of individuals at Council level,
far more than they might for State or Federal elections.
 The
voting system -
Mayor
The type
of voting used to elect the Mayor is a 'preferential,
first-past-the-post' system, similar to that used in the Legislative
Assembly. A candidate standing for Mayor can also be (and usually
is) a candidate on a Councillor ballot - the successful
Mayor-elect's group votes transfer to the next in line on the
Councillor ticket.
For your vote to be valid, you need to
mark one or more candidates in order starting from 1. You may
choose as many or few as you wish, and again the decision is
entirely at the discretion of the voter - though many electors will
follow the recommendations of their Party as listed on the
How-to-Vote material.
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