THE eight councillors successfully voted onto to Balranald Shire council have been determined following the recent New South Wales local government elections.
Dwaine Scott and Louie Zaffina were elected without the need for preference flows, as they swallowed up the majority of first preference votes in Balranald and Euston respectively.
Once their preferences were distributed, Tracy O’Hallaron and Phillip Pippin were also both elected.
Subsequent preferences were then distributed, but none of the other candidates had hit a threshold of 115 votes required to get take a seat on council.
Candidates then began getting excluded, beginning with the candidate who had the lowest amount of votes to that point.
Brodie Rayner was ruled out first, then Lynda Moss, and then Patricia Winch.
Their exclusions allowed Alison Linnett to reach the necessary quota of votes, and she was elected as the Shire’s fifth councillor.
Her preferences were then distributed but the remaining candidates were still below the quota, triggering another exclusion.
Ronald Mengler was ruled out of contention, which resulted in two of other candidates getting across the line, German Ugarte and Leigh Byron.
Only two candidates remained for one other vacancy, Iain Lindsay Field and Morgan Rasmus, but Mr Lindsay Field had a 41 vote lead.
The gap was unassailable regardless of whether German Ugarte and Leigh Byron’s preferences were entirely distributed to Mr Rasmus, and Mr Lindsay Field was elected.
Once the eight successful candidates are sworn in, Balranald Shire Council will have councillors for the first time since 2019, after a period of administration.
The Balranald Shire had 1377 enrolled voters for this election, and 1056 votes were cast, a voter turnout of 76.69 per cent.
Only 22 votes were informal, representing 2.08 per cent.
