Elections conducted by NSW Electoral Commission (NSWEC)

Section 296 of the Local Government Elections Act was changed on 27 June 2011 giving councils the opportunity to conduct their own elections if they wished.

The NSW Electoral Commission (NSWEC) is responsible for 126 council elections. 35 of these councils also have a Mayor election, 8 councils are conducting a Constitutional Referendum and 2 councils are conducting a Council Poll.

During the election period the VTR will only contain results for elections conducted by the NSWEC. The VTR will operate throughout the election event and publish results from election night through to the declaration of the successful Councillor candidates, Mayoral candidates, and the final results of Referendums and Polls.

Results

For detailed results for a Local Government Area (Council) go to Results by Local Government Area.

Counting the Votes

Each contest type is counted differently.

The Mayor and Councillor counts are conducted using a combination of manual counting (Initial Count) and data entry into the NSWEC computer count system (Check Count). The Check Count comprises of batching which is counting the ballot papers into bundles of 25 without examining the preferences, and data entry (two rounds of data entry known as Round 1 and Round 2 and a reconciliation process). For detailed information on how votes are counted at Local Government elections go to How votes are counted.

The Check Count results for Mayor and Councillor will be reported on the VTR progressively after the Check Count is completed for a venue or a vote type.

The distribution of preferences to determine the elected candidate(s) will be conducted in the third week after election day. The final count reports will be published on the VTR shortly after the DoP is completed for a Mayor or a Councillor contest.

All Final Count results for Referendum and Poll will be reported on the VTR after the initial count is completed or after the check count (if required) is completed in the weeks after election day.