WYNDHAM Council wants the Victorian Electoral Commission to educate voters about local government elections, after a third of residents failed to vote in last year’s poll.
Voter turnout for the October election was 67 per cent, down from 74 per cent at the previous election in 2008.
Harrison Ward had the lowest participation rate, with only 63.58 per cent of its 40,079 enrolled voters returning their ballot paper. In Chaffey Ward turnout was 67.95 per cent, while in Iramoo 70.5 per cent of residents voted.
The VEC will issue 15,000 ‘failure to vote’ notices to residents who did not return their ballot papers. Residents may be fined $70.
Councillors said they believed many residents did not vote because they were confused about how the poll was being run. Cr Gautam Gupta said many people, particularly migrants not used to elections, did not know how they were meant to vote.
Cr Shane Bourke said other residents were confused about the voting method and thought they had to vote in person, rather than return their ballot paper by post.
Cr Bourke said the number of candidates standing in some wards also deterred people from voting. In Chaffey Ward, 19 candidates stood for election, while 18 people nominated in Harrison Ward.
Cr Bourke said voters had received oversized candidate statement sheets and ballot papers with many names, making voting seem like a daunting task. He called for the Victorian Local Government Association and the Municipal Association of Victoria to help voters make sense of the process before the next election in 2016.
