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Speaker 1: We know the Northern Territory has resoundingly voted for change

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Speaker 1: and the COLP is going to govern with a strong majority.

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Speaker 2: A couple of seats are still too close to calls.

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Speaker 1: The Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner, Kirsten Kelly joins me on

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Speaker 1: the line.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to your commissioner.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Katy, Commissioner.

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Speaker 1: First off, where are things at with the counting this morning?

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Speaker 2: What steps are we at?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so yesterday some postal votes are counted and then

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Speaker 3: admitted to the count and the results are updated. So

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Speaker 3: today's all about resetting a couple of tcps and looking

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Speaker 3: at those, and then we're doing a full check count

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Speaker 3: of everything that's been counted to date while we continue

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Speaker 3: to sort the declaration votes and the absence votes so

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Speaker 3: we can exchange those back to their home divisions for counting.

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Speaker 1: So, I mean, some of those seats that are incredibly

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Speaker 1: close at this point in time, are we going to

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Speaker 1: have a better idea of those or not really today?

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Speaker 3: So today the MAMI is the focus on the TCP

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Speaker 3: of the two candidates preferred that needs to be recent,

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Speaker 3: So Braitling, Fanny Bay Johnson and Katherine we'll be looking

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Speaker 3: at the tcps again and adjusting those, and then the

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Speaker 3: rest of the divisions will be doing a check count.

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Speaker 3: So we're getting postal returns of starting to come back.

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Speaker 3: But over the count period, which is a thirteen day period,

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Speaker 3: we'll start to look at the declaration boats and have

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Speaker 3: them assessed and the absent boats to be exchanged. So

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Speaker 3: it'll be a couple more days before we start to

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Speaker 3: count more ballot papers that haven't been looked at yet.

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Speaker 1: All right, But so for the likes of Fanny Bay,

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Speaker 1: I guess just because I've got that up on the

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Speaker 1: screen now when you talk about the TPC, I think

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Speaker 1: you called it. If you know, like you've got Lori

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Speaker 1: Zo there on the winning the count, then you've got Suki,

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Speaker 1: then you've got Brent Potter.

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Speaker 2: So you'll be going back through.

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Speaker 1: Accounts like those and double checking that you've got the

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Speaker 1: top two, you know, exactly as they should be.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's correct. So on election night, the Commission may

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Speaker 3: set a TCP of who are the two candidates likely

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Speaker 3: to have the high first preferences, And that's a guest

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Speaker 3: of it, and it doesn't have any bearing on the

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Speaker 3: results overall. But where that is not quite right we

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Speaker 3: reset that and we do it again on Monday to

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Speaker 3: the two candidates with the highest preferences, and that's what

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Speaker 3: will be happening today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it actually seemed like it was really quite wrong

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Speaker 1: on the weekend. I mean, in the likes of Fanny Bay,

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Speaker 1: in the likes of Johnson, it seemed to, you know,

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Speaker 1: to be really throwing people out, particularly in the likes

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Speaker 1: of Johnson, where Joel Boden was very clearly third on

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Speaker 1: the list when it came to those primary votes, yet

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Speaker 1: he was coming up with that two party preferred count.

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Speaker 3: So they get removed when it's off the website. When

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Speaker 3: it's determined that that's there, the incorrect first preferences have

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Speaker 3: been selected, and that's not uncommon practice for that to

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Speaker 3: be done. So the Electoral Commission will set that, and

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Speaker 3: again it's a discretionary whether that's set, and the purpose

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Speaker 3: of that is to give an early indication of what

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Speaker 3: the likely outcome may be, but it does have no

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Speaker 3: bearing on the results. And we're looking at that again

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Speaker 3: again today. But the Commission looks at that with regard

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Speaker 3: to historic voting practices who've held the seats previously. So

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Speaker 3: we're not political commentators, but will look to see when

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Speaker 3: we're setting that what information is available, but we reset

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Speaker 3: that if that's not correct, and that's what we're doing today.

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Speaker 1: There has actually been a lot of criticism of the

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Speaker 1: Electoral Commission over the last twenty four hours or so.

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Speaker 1: I know, I've heard quite a bit from other major

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Speaker 1: political parties, even Independence, you know, quite sort of frustrated

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Speaker 1: with what felt as some pretty significant delays.

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Speaker 2: Firstly in those numbers coming up on Saturday night.

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Speaker 1: What was the reason for what felt like significant delays

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Speaker 1: on Saturday?

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Speaker 3: So on. So the voting stops at six pm, and

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Speaker 3: then after that time, scrutiny is are briefed and then

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Speaker 3: ballot boxes are open and then there's unfolding which occurs.

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Speaker 3: So the unfolding process of the ballot papers can take

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Speaker 3: sometimes between forty five minutes or so before the results

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Speaker 3: come through, and we do start looking at the larger

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Speaker 3: divisions first, so it does take a little bit time

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Speaker 3: for those to come through. So the results certainly started

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Speaker 3: coming through in time, but because we cannot open those

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Speaker 3: ballot boxes until six pm, the results do take a

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Speaker 3: little bit of time to come through, and there were

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Speaker 3: quite a number of papers being counted all right Baturday night.

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Speaker 1: And so then I mean when you take a look

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Speaker 1: at some of those closer electorates and you know, and

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Speaker 1: taking a look at the likes of Fanny Bay and

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Speaker 1: Nightcliff for example, and also Johnson, you know where we

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Speaker 1: were in a situation where the actual candidates who were

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Speaker 1: leading were not necessarily the ones that were having the

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Speaker 1: preferences go towards them.

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Speaker 2: How come sort of once.

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Speaker 1: You realize that that was the case, you don't change

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Speaker 1: attacked because what.

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Speaker 3: The results come through based on voting centers, so you

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Speaker 3: don't have all of that information available to you until

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Speaker 3: the night progresses. So we look at it at the

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Speaker 3: closest to the end, as the vaults of the results

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Speaker 3: come in, and the practice has been as a commission

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Speaker 3: to redo that on the following Monday before the check

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Speaker 3: counter occurs.

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Speaker 1: Should the Electoral Commission of maybe had their finger on

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Speaker 1: the pulse a little bit more we see the two

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Speaker 1: candidate preferred counts, So it.

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Speaker 3: Is again it's a discretion of the commission to have

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Speaker 3: the TCP. And as I said earlier, we're not political commentators.

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Speaker 3: So the information that we look at is like incumbency,

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Speaker 3: what the voting patents have been over previous years and

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Speaker 3: then they're set according to that. And the last election,

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Speaker 3: I think there was about five or six that had

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Speaker 3: to be reset. So we can get them wrong, but

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Speaker 3: we do reset them, and then we'll look at those

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Speaker 3: ones today.

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Speaker 1: I've no doubt, you know, in some of those ones

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Speaker 1: that are really close at the moment. I'm sure that

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Speaker 1: even you know, even the candidates are going to be

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Speaker 1: listening this morning and wondering when they're going to get

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Speaker 1: a bit of a clearer idea of an outcome for

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Speaker 1: those just I know you sort of touched on this,

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Speaker 1: but just you know, tell us exactly what the process

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Speaker 1: is going to be, and I guess when we could

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Speaker 1: have a fairer idea.

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Speaker 3: So today we'll be a check count. So there's an

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Speaker 3: opportunity and that's done under scrutiny as well, so looking

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Speaker 3: at all the papers again as if they haven't been countered.

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Speaker 3: But there's certainly opportunities for scrutiny. Is to go and

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Speaker 3: look at all the ballot papers again, and that includes

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Speaker 3: ballot papers for other candidates and where those movements are looking.

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Speaker 3: So with regard to the declaration votes, it's probably about

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Speaker 3: eighteen hundred of those still being processed and sent to

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Speaker 3: the Australian Electoral Commission to determine the eligibility to be

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Speaker 3: enrolled and therefore the vote being added to the count.

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Speaker 3: And then we've got a postal vote still coming through

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Speaker 3: up until the sixth of September, and then we have

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Speaker 3: the absent exchange which happens in there. So the count

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Speaker 3: period is a thirteen day count period that will continue

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Speaker 3: to go through and count all those ballot papers and

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Speaker 3: under scrutiny as well coming days and weeks. The certainly

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Speaker 3: the updates on the website as we get more and

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Speaker 3: more of those ballot papers that we haven't looked at

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Speaker 3: looked at.

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Speaker 1: And I suppose sorry, it's probably more my lack of

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Speaker 1: understanding than anything. But I mean with so like with

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Speaker 1: Funny Bay for example, where I know you're rechecking those counts,

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Speaker 1: but when will we see sort of an update on

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Speaker 1: the on the preferences and where those preferences are going

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Speaker 1: to flow through.

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Speaker 3: So there'll be today, there'll be that TCP adjointment and

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Speaker 3: then there should be some updates on the website today,

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Speaker 3: but that won't include anything that's still outstanding, So any

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Speaker 3: postals that haven't been returned any deeneration votes and add

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Speaker 3: some votes.

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Speaker 1: And so in terms of you know, the process regarding

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Speaker 1: those postal votes and the others that are still outstanding,

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Speaker 1: they've got a couple of weeks, don't they, Or we've

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Speaker 1: still got a bit of time before.

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Speaker 2: They come in.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So all of the postal votes have to be

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Speaker 3: completed by six pm on election day, but they have

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Speaker 3: to be returned and received by the Anti Electrical Commission

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Speaker 3: by twelve noon on the sixth of September.

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Speaker 1: All right, Now, in terms of the voter turnout, by

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Speaker 1: the look of it, it looks like it was really

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Speaker 1: quite low what percentage of voters turned out in the end.

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Speaker 3: So just looking at the ballot papers we've counted, so

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Speaker 3: there's still many many ballot papers to count, but there's

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Speaker 3: eighty two hundred and twenty one ballot papers that have

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Speaker 3: been counted so far, and if we divide that by

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Speaker 3: the number of people on the electoral roll are entitled

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Speaker 3: to vote, it's about fifty seven point six percent.

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Speaker 2: So do you reckon?

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Speaker 1: We'll like what I suppose what are you predicting we

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Speaker 1: end up with percentage wise? Because eighty eight thousand doesn't

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Speaker 1: sound like a huge amount in terms of that one

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty three thousand odds that are on the

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Speaker 1: electoral on the electoral roll.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so we certainly it will increase from that as

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Speaker 3: more and more ballot papers come in with the absence

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Speaker 3: and the decks in the postals. So we've certainly, I

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Speaker 3: believe it'll be less than twenty twenty because we have

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Speaker 3: more people on the role than what we did now.

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Speaker 3: But we're certainly seeing that the voter participation trends through

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Speaker 3: the modes of voting. So early voting, election day voting,

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Speaker 3: mobile voting have been consistent in numbers since twenty twenty,

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Speaker 3: so that's a positive sign. But with more people in

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Speaker 3: the role, it is likely to show a decrease in participation.

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Speaker 1: Did as many people turn up on the day to vote,

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Speaker 1: because we're hearing anecdotally that people were saying they went to,

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Speaker 1: you know, the usual spot that they go to vote,

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Speaker 1: but it was no longer there.

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Speaker 2: And you and I had spoken.

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Speaker 1: About that prior to the election, about some of those

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Speaker 1: voting centers changing.

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Speaker 2: Do you think that had an impact?

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Speaker 3: So based on the numbers, so the election day we

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Speaker 3: had twenty two eight hundred and two and in twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty it was twenty three thousand YEP two hundred, so

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Speaker 3: about a four hundred difference there. And signage was put

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Speaker 3: up at voting centers where we weren't offering voting services

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Speaker 3: and may have not offered it for a number of elections.

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Speaker 3: But also the Austrail Electric Commission provided services just to

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Speaker 3: let people know where they could be redirected to, so

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Speaker 3: I hope they were visible to people.

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Speaker 2: Were there any issues on polling day?

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Speaker 3: No, not so much of the service center was up

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Speaker 3: and running, so voters seemed to and be able to

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Speaker 3: find where they needed to vote, and we sent out many,

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Speaker 3: many thousands of SMS and emails to people to remind

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Speaker 3: them that they had the last chance to vote. And yeah,

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Speaker 3: outside of that, there's some certainly in the designated campaign areas,

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Speaker 3: just some clarification needed around what the rules are in

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Speaker 3: those areas where voting centers had them. But generally it

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Speaker 3: was very good election day.

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Speaker 1: In terms of I mean, just looking at that voter turnout,

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Speaker 1: are you disappointed that we didn't get more people rock

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Speaker 1: up to vote?

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Speaker 3: We always want to see an improvement. We always want

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Speaker 3: people to exercise their democratic right and responsibility and participate.

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Speaker 3: So it's our job at the Electrical Commission to conduct

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Speaker 3: the elections and provide voters with an elect service to

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Speaker 3: promote the election. And it's also the responsibility of electors

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Speaker 3: to participate in candidates to promote their candids as well.

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Speaker 3: So there's a lot of stakeholders involved and certainly we'll

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Speaker 3: be evaluating our services and looking for ways to improve those.

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Speaker 1: Do you know if it was sort of lower out

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Speaker 1: in the remote areas or what was the turnout like

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Speaker 1: in some of those more remote regional areas.

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Speaker 3: So across all of the divisions, that's tracking the lower

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Speaker 3: but I would want to wait until I have all

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Speaker 3: the declaration votes and absent votes before I'd make any comments.

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Speaker 3: But I'd say there would be a general downward trend

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Speaker 3: across all divisions, and then I'll have to have a

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Speaker 3: look to see what that looks like in the remote divisions.

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Speaker 3: But with regards to the mobile the remote urban mobile polling,

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Speaker 3: the figures are pretty comparatble between twenty twenty and twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty four.

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Speaker 1: As well, how did voting end up going in what air?

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Speaker 1: With changes due to sorry business.

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Speaker 3: So there was four days of voting services available there

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Speaker 3: and with the close of community services. Voting finished early

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Speaker 3: on one day, I think around nine nine five and

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Speaker 3: then opened up again with the rest of the community

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Speaker 3: services for the full day. So my understanding is there

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Speaker 3: was about over fifty percent participation based on that, so

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Speaker 3: there was still participation over that period of time, and

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Speaker 3: I'd have to get the full numbers again to do

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Speaker 3: comparisons with our previous election.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, fine's going to be sent out to

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Speaker 1: people who didn't rock up to vote.

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Speaker 3: So that we did receive well over a thousand or

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Speaker 3: two thousand people who've provided excuses before election days, so

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Speaker 3: why they couldn't disicipate. So that's a really positive thing

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Speaker 3: too that people are letting us know. But we'll be

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Speaker 3: looking at the non voter numbers and be looking to

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Speaker 3: issue infringement apparent value to vote notices for people in

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Speaker 3: the future in the coming weeks and months.

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Speaker 1: There were reports as well last week that Johnson incumbent

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Speaker 1: Joel Bouden was asked to leave a pre polling booth

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Speaker 1: on Thursday.

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Speaker 2: What happened there, so.

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Speaker 3: There was mister Dowden was asked to leave an unauthorized area,

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Speaker 3: so just access for staff only to use facilities, bathroom facilities.

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Speaker 1: All right, so what went inside wasn't and didn't ask

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Speaker 1: or something?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeh, that's my understanding.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, right.

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Speaker 1: Now, just in terms of I suppose what kind of

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Speaker 1: happens next, I know, like stepping away from from the

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Speaker 1: vote count and that kind of thing. We're all like,

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Speaker 1: we're all I suppose wrapping our heads around that. But

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Speaker 1: in terms of what happens next with some of the

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Speaker 1: concerns that have been raised in terms of you know,

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Speaker 1: the vote count some people, you know, political parties sort

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Speaker 1: of questioning the way in which the Electoral Commission has

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Speaker 1: maybe done things. Do you guys you obviously conduct quite

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Speaker 1: a big review post election anyway, don't you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I'm sure. And now all of our election

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Speaker 3: reports are available on the website, so if anyone wants

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Speaker 3: to have a look at anyone. But previously they're quite

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Speaker 3: comprehensive and this one will be no exception. But we

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Speaker 3: do review our services. We also review areas in the

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Speaker 3: legislation or our operations, and we'll make recommendations in that report.

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Speaker 3: So any feedback particularly, we'll be looking at the timing

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Speaker 3: of doing the account and any opportunities to be able

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Speaker 3: to access ballot papers a little bit early to start unfolding,

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Speaker 3: so those results can become a little bit more quickly

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Speaker 3: released as one of as a potential options.

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Speaker 1: Well, Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner, Kirsten Kelly, I always appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time. I know it's been a massive weekend for

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Speaker 1: you and all of the Northern Territory Electoral commission staff.

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Speaker 1: No doubt I'll probably talk to you again though over

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Speaker 1: the coming days, with you know, with everything still sort

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Speaker 1: of being counted and some of those numbers still up

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Speaker 1: in the air at this point.

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Speaker 3: No, thank you so much for also providing coverage for

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Speaker 3: this and promoting the election for terry and candidates. Greatly

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Speaker 3: appreciate Yeah, anytime.

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Speaker 2: And look, I always think I wish more people.

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Speaker 1: I wish everybody that was on the electoral role turned

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Speaker 1: out to vote, and I know we can't. You know,

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Speaker 1: we can do our best to try to encourage them,

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Speaker 1: and obviously, you know, with those fines, trying to make

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Speaker 1: it a bit of a deterrent if they don't turn up.

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Speaker 1: But I just think it is so very important to

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Speaker 1: exercise your democratic right to vote.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's absolutely a privilege to be able to vote

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Speaker 3: in a democratic election.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much for your time this morning, Commissioner.

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Speaker 2: We'll talk to you again soon

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Speaker 3: No trouble, and we'll have a great dank you too,