Victorian council elections are conducted entirely by postal voting, run by the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) — not the Australian Electoral Commission, which runs state and federal elections. That distinction trips up more people than it should.
01 / Who's actually eligible
Enrolment for council elections works differently to state and federal elections. Australian citizens on the state electoral roll living in the municipality are automatically eligible. But council elections also allow non-resident ratepayers (people who own property in the municipality but live elsewhere) and, in some cases, non-citizen ratepayers to enrol separately on the council's voters' roll — a category that doesn't exist for state or federal voting.
02 / The timeline that catches people out
Figure 01 · The sequence
Enrolment closes well before voting opens.
If you've moved house, changed your name, or turned 18 since the last time you checked your enrolment, do it again well before an election year — an out-of-date enrolled address means your ballot pack goes to the wrong place.
03 / What to actually do now
Your enrolment
- Confirm your enrolled address is current via the VEC or AEC roll check
- Non-resident ratepayers: check whether you need to apply separately to the council's voters' roll
The ballot pack
- It arrives by post, unprompted, if you're correctly enrolled
- Return it promptly — don't wait until the deadline week
04 / How preferences actually work
Victorian council elections use preferential voting, and in multi-councillor wards, proportional representation. That means numbering every box matters more than people assume — a ballot with only a "1" marked may be informal depending on the rules applying to that election, and preferences genuinely decide most council seats.
In a single-councillor ward, the count works like a federal House of Representatives seat: if nobody has more than half the primary votes, the lowest-polling candidate is excluded and their votes flow to the next preference marked on each ballot, repeating until someone has a majority. This is why a candidate leading on primary votes can still lose — and why where you place candidates 2, 3 and 4 is a real decision, not a formality.
Figure 02 · Why preferences decide it
| Round | What happens |
|---|---|
| Primary count | Every ballot's "1" is counted. If a candidate has more than 50%, they're elected immediately. |
| First exclusion | The lowest-polling candidate is excluded; their ballots are redistributed to each voter's next available preference. |
| Subsequent exclusions | The process repeats — lowest excluded, preferences redistributed — until one candidate passes 50%. |
| Result | The elected candidate is the one most acceptable to a majority, not necessarily the one with the most first preferences. |
The practical takeaway: your later preferences are genuinely consequential in a crowded field. If your first choice doesn't make it, your second and third choices are what actually decide the seat.
05 / Filling out the ballot correctly
Make it count
- Number every box sequentially — 1, 2, 3, and so on — unless the instructions on your ballot say otherwise
- Use clear numerals; ticks and crosses can invalidate a ballot
- Complete and sign the declaration flap on the envelope — an unsigned declaration can void an otherwise valid ballot
- Post it early — well before the deadline, not on it
Common ways ballots get rejected
- Repeating a number, or skipping one
- Leaving boxes blank when sequential numbering is required
- Writing comments or identifying marks on the ballot paper
- Forgetting to sign the declaration
- Relying on the postmark rather than actual receipt
06 / If your ballot doesn't arrive
Ballot packs go to your enrolled address. If you've moved, are travelling, are in hospital, or the pack simply doesn't turn up, you can contact the VEC to arrange a replacement — but the window for that is short, so acting in the week the packs are distributed rather than the week they're due matters considerably.
Voting in council elections is compulsory for most enrolled voters, and failing to vote can result in a fine. If you have a genuine reason you couldn't vote — illness, travel, or a ballot that never arrived — there's a formal process to explain it, and it's worth using rather than ignoring the notice.
07 / Non-resident and business ratepayers
This is the category most people don't know exists. If you own property in Greater Geelong but live elsewhere, or you're a non-citizen who owns or occupies rateable property, you may be entitled to enrol on the council voters' roll even though you're not on the state roll for that address. It's not automatic — it generally requires an application to the council, and the deadline is tied to when the roll closes.
It matters in a ward like ours: farm owners, business operators and investment property owners in the You Yangs Ward can have a genuine stake in council decisions without living inside the ward boundary. If that's your situation, checking your entitlement well ahead of the roll closing is worth the ten minutes.
08 / Judging candidates in a council election
Council elections have no party columns to fall back on, and candidate statements are short. Four questions cut through most of it: Do they live in the ward? What have they actually done here before asking for your vote? Are they specific about what they'd do, or only about what's wrong? And who's funding them?
That last one is the one I'd urge people to ask every candidate, including me. Council decisions — planning permits, tenders, land use — have direct financial consequences for particular parties, and a candidate's funding sources are a legitimate thing for voters to know before they number a box. My own answer is on the Transparency page: no donations, no sponsorships, no favours, and a signed pledge to that effect.
