THE counting of votes in Victoria’s local government elections is expected to take four times longer than usual as Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) staff feel the logistical weight of a poll “like no other”.
As voting closed on Friday by mail and in person at the VEC’s Mildura office, more than half the 40,000 eligible voters in the Mildura municipality had cast their vote to elect nine councillors for the next four years.
VEC Mildura returning officer Trevor Leighton said that just over 20,000 local ballots had been received by Wednesday and “it’s likely to be up to 25,000 by the end of Friday”.
“Yes, it’s an election like no other, due to COVID,” said Mr Leighton, who has served in the role for the past two decades.
“It’s been different for us, but the impact (for VEC staff) has been greater in Melbourne because of their tighter stage of restrictions.”
He said the “extraction” process of ballots from envelopes would begin on Monday before the counting of votes kicked off on Wednesday.
Logistical barriers would cause delays in counting, Mr Leighton said.
“We’ll be counting in the (Mildura VEC) office, which has five computers, instead of using the local TAFE, where we had access to 20-odd computers and did it all in one day before,” he said.
“Now, it’s going to take us three or four days.”
He said that a clear picture of results for Mildura was likely to emerge a day after the Melbourne Cup, held on Tuesday, November 3.
Meanwhile, the Local Government Inspectorate this week reported “very limited complaints or inquiries” in relation to the Mildura election.
This is despite a surge in complaints across the state.
“Overall, complaints relating to the 2020 council elections have already exceeded those received by the Inspectorate in 2016,” acting chief municipal inspector Dr John Lynch said earlier this week.
“The total volume of electoral complaints across 76 Victorian councils holding elections is expected to increase by approximately 40 per cent compared to the 2016 election period.
“The majority of complaints involve potential breaches by candidates of rules around correct authorisation of social media posts or accounts.”
Dr Lynch refused to reveal how many complaints had been received in relation to the Mildura election, or the nature of them.
