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Speaker 1: Well we know, of course, the council election was held

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Speaker 1: over the course of the weekend, Territorians going to the

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Speaker 1: polls on Saturday and vote counting continues today with some

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Speaker 1: seats really far too close to call, one of them

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Speaker 1: being Darwin, while the while in Palmerston Athena Pasco Bell

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Speaker 1: looks set for another term as mayor, joining us on

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Speaker 1: the line as the Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner. Kirsten Kelly,

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Speaker 1: good morning to your commissioner.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Now how did it go at the voting centers on Saturday?

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Speaker 1: I was hearing that there were some pretty long lines

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Speaker 1: and people still lined up at about six pm when

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Speaker 1: voting closed. Did they all get to vote?

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Speaker 2: So if anyone attended a voting center and they were there,

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Speaker 2: honor be four six pm, they absolutely were entitled to

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Speaker 2: vote and were supported to vote. So what the practices

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Speaker 2: for all electoral commissions? At close of voting? An authorized

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Speaker 2: officer will stand if there is a queue in the

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Speaker 2: line behind the person that was there on or before

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Speaker 2: six pm and supports those people to move through the

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Speaker 2: voting senators, so there might be a vote issued after

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Speaker 2: that person was there in time to vote. So they're

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Speaker 2: always entitled to vote.

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Speaker 1: Was there much of a mad rush sort of on

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Speaker 1: Friday people trying to get in before the weekend or

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Speaker 1: did you have the highest voter turnout on Saturday?

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Speaker 2: So there was a really high turnout on Friday, which

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Speaker 2: is really positive, and people took advantage of that additional

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Speaker 2: hour till six pm on Friday. I think there was

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Speaker 2: about over six thousand on Friday, so it was the

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Speaker 2: highest voting day during the early voting period. So we'll

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Speaker 2: have our data available on the website today which will

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Speaker 2: show the last day of early voting data as well

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Speaker 2: as election day voting data. But early voting is still

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Speaker 2: the voting of choice in the territory, which is positive

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Speaker 2: that people taking advantage of those eleven days of voting

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Speaker 2: before election day.

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Speaker 1: All right, Commissioner, talk us through where things are at

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Speaker 1: now with the vote counting. It looked as though you

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Speaker 1: certainly had staff there very late on Saturday night. But

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Speaker 1: when does it resume? What's the guy?

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Speaker 2: So the counting, So on Saturday night there was just

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Speaker 2: under one hundred and twenty thousand votes that were counted.

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Speaker 2: So on Saturday night, the votes that were counted at

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Speaker 2: the scrutiny centers and election day voting centers. Were votes

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Speaker 2: cast at early voting centers, the votes that were cast

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Speaker 2: on election day, the votes cast at remote through remote

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Speaker 2: voting teams. And there was one absent vote counted for

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Speaker 2: Kola Linga, which had quite a high number of votes

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Speaker 2: cast for the mayor, so that one was counted on

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Speaker 2: Saturday night, so the team finished up around There was

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Speaker 2: no more counts started after ten thirty, and all the

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Speaker 2: voting had finished before eleven, so on the website there's

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Speaker 2: some results up the dates time frames later than that,

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Speaker 2: but that's just when the data was synchronized to the website.

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Speaker 2: So all of the counts finished and the scrutiny is

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Speaker 2: left before eleven PM, So today is the fresh scrutiny

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Speaker 2: or the check counts. So what that means is that

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Speaker 2: the one hundred just under one hundred and twenty thousand

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Speaker 2: ballot papers that were looked at on Saturday night I

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Speaker 2: looked at again as if they've been looked at for

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Speaker 2: the first time. So for the single vacancy positions such

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Speaker 2: as the mayor, they'll all be looked at again under

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Speaker 2: candidate scrutiny if they're in attendance and they'll be and

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Speaker 2: then there might be some movements. They'll be published on

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Speaker 2: the website today. So there were some missoughts that will

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Speaker 2: also be added to the count today. So what that

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Speaker 2: means is is that someone who lives in Darwen Palmerston,

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Speaker 2: where there's a mayor position in the issued to ballot papers,

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Speaker 2: they might have put their ballot paper in the wrong

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Speaker 2: box for their councilor position. So on Saturday night they're

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Speaker 2: put aside and they'll be added to the counts today.

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Speaker 1: Right now in terms of you know how close I

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Speaker 1: guess it is for some of these seats, when are

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Speaker 1: we going to sort of get a better understanding or

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Speaker 1: when are we going to start to see some of

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Speaker 1: the additional votes counted and those preferences start to flow through.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So as an example, to be added to the

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Speaker 2: count tomorrow, there's just under fifteen hundred postal votes for

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Speaker 2: the City of Darwin and then in Palmerston there's a

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Speaker 2: five hundred and fifty to be added to the count.

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Speaker 2: So there's some additional accounts that will be coming through.

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Speaker 2: And there's about eighteen hundred left postal votes for City

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Speaker 2: of Darwin that can come between now and the fifth

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Speaker 2: of September. So over the coming days, in the thirteen

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Speaker 2: day count period, there'll be new counts that are added

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Speaker 2: while we're continuing to scrutiny the ballot papers that we've

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Speaker 2: already looked at before, and a little bit of a

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Speaker 2: different position for the councilor positions where there's multi vacancies,

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Speaker 2: because those ballot papers get entered into a count software

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Speaker 2: called easy count, and they get entered and verified again

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Speaker 2: under scrutiny as well, and then on the fifth of September,

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Speaker 2: once the quota is known, then will be declared or

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Speaker 2: during the distribution of preferences there to determine who selected.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so what day are we expecting those preferences, did

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Speaker 1: you say?

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Speaker 2: So? The fifth of September is the last day that

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Speaker 2: we can receive postal votes to be returned, so at

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Speaker 2: twelve noon they will have to be returned by and

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Speaker 2: then after that we do the final count of those

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Speaker 2: and add them, and then after that we do the

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Speaker 2: distribution of preferences if that's required.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So that may not happen for Darwin, for example,

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Speaker 1: that might not actually happen until the fifth of September.

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Speaker 2: For the councilor positions, that's correct, So the single vacancy position.

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Speaker 2: So the mayor will do those ballot papers manually and

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Speaker 2: every day there'll be fresh updates for results, so that

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Speaker 2: doesn't get entered into count software, so we'll be able

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Speaker 2: to see where the quoter is. And for a single vacancy,

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Speaker 2: it's fifty percent of the formal votes plus one.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Now, in terms of our numbers the number of

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Speaker 1: people that turned up to vote, how are those participation

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Speaker 1: rates sort of looking?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so it varies across councils and ward elections, but

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Speaker 2: on across the territory there was just under seventy two

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Speaker 2: thousand territories who are eligible of the one hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty two approximately people that were required to vote in

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Speaker 2: the election, So that's sitting at about one hundred and sorry,

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Speaker 2: fifty four percent. That excludes the postal votes yet to

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Speaker 2: be returned and any declaration votes that might be included

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Speaker 2: in the count. So it's sitting currently around fifty four

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Speaker 2: percent voter turnout.

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Speaker 1: What are you expecting that to go up? So are

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Speaker 1: you expecting that to go up? That seems very low?

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Speaker 2: Expecting it to go up a little bit, but in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one across the territory, participation was sixty one

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Speaker 2: point three. So it is decline and it's likely not

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Speaker 2: to get that high for this election given what's outstanding.

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Speaker 1: Wow, how do we amp up those numbers because that

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Speaker 1: is a pretty ordinary turnout.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And the vote of participation in election, we saw

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Speaker 2: it last year in the territory election we're in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty it was a seventy four point nine percent participation

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Speaker 2: and it went down to it was seventy seventy eight

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Speaker 2: last year as well. So we are seeing not just

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Speaker 2: in remote areas the decline. Was seeing that in urban

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Speaker 2: areas as well, and we saw that as well in

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Speaker 2: the May federal election. So there's some work to do

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Speaker 2: to understand that. And there's some certainly why people aren't

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Speaker 2: participating in elections. Yeah, there's many reasons, I would imagine,

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Speaker 2: and we're certainly looking and we do evaluate every election

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Speaker 2: and look at our service delivery and see if there's

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Speaker 2: ways that we can improve there as well.

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Speaker 1: Well. Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner Kirsten Kelly really appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time this morning, and I'm sure we'll probably talk again

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Speaker 1: over the coming days with all these votes to be counted.

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Speaker 1: Happy to thank you, thank you, Thanks for your time,