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 NSWEC is responsible for 122 Council elections. 34 of these Councils also have a Mayor election, 8 Councils are conducting a Constitutional Referendum and 1 Council is conducting a Council Poll.

During the election period the VTR contained only results for elections conducted by the NSWEC. The VTR operated throughout the election event and published 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 50 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.

All Final Count results for Councillor and Mayor were reported on the VTR after the check count and distribution of preferences were conducted in the third week after election day.

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