Kwinana is preparing to vote for a new Mayor and five new Councillors with residents encouraged to have their say via their posted voter pack before 21 October 2023.
The voter packs reflect State Government changes to the way the community votes in the Election to bring in Local Government Elections in line with State and Federal Elections.
One of the key changes is a move away from the first-past-the-post system of voting to optional preferential voting (OPV).
OPV requires the elector to number the ballot paper to indicate their preference. Electors can choose to “vote for one, vote for some, or vote for all” candidates on the ballot paper.
Therefore, preference order won't be automatically allocated; only electors can decide where their preferences go. If the candidates voted for are eliminated from the count, the elector’s vote will be exhausted.
Outgoing Mayor Carol Adams said under the optional preferential voting system, electors could now vote for candidates in order of preference but are not required to number all the boxes if they don’t want to.
“Optional preferential voting means candidates elected are more representative of the majority of voters,” Mayor Adams said.
“The Mayor will be popularly elected by the community, rather than by Councillors, also through optional preferential voting to ensure the elected candidate is the most preferred candidate of a majority of voters,” she said.
Votes need to be returned to the City by 6pm on Election Day, 21 October as the count starts at 6pm with results available as soon as practicable after the election.
Read more about the City of Kwinana’s Local Government Election and for more detail about Optional Preferential Voting visit the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries