Local government
Democrats on your council ballot
Councils are the tier of government closest to your street. Pick your council to see who we are standing, which ballot papers you will be handed, and exactly how many boxes you have to number.
How a NSW council election works
Every council in New South Wales runs on the same handful of rules. The rest — how many councillors, how many wards, whether you get a mayoral paper — changes council by council.
The papers you are handed
Everybody gets a councillor paper. You may also get a mayoral paper — only where
that council's mayor is elected by the voters rather than chosen by the councillors — and a
referendum or poll paper if the council has resolved to ask you something. Which
combination you get is set out on each council's page above.
The four ballot papers the Commission prints
Why a ballot may have no line
Groups have to ask for a square above the line, and they only qualify if they are big enough —
on an undivided council, at least half the number to be elected; in a ward, at least as many candidates
as that ward elects. Even then, unless more than one group has asked for a square, no squares are
printed and there is no above-the-line voting at all: the groups still appear as columns, but every
preference has to be marked against an individual. That is why a council's ballot shape here says
“not settled until nominations close” until the Commission publishes the paper.
Sources, all NSW Electoral Commission:
how a local government election works,
ballot paper formats,
groups and group voting squares,
how votes are counted,
how to cast your vote.