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Speaker 1: Now, as we know, the line's by election was held

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Speaker 1: at the weekend, and while it's too early to declare

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Speaker 1: a winner, the Greens, Suki Duras Walker is the front

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Speaker 1: runner with twenty one percent of the first preferences, followed

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Speaker 1: by a veteran and Mad Snake Cafe owner Sam Weston

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Speaker 1: on eighteen percent. There are also reports though that only

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Speaker 1: half of the enrolled voters had turned out to vote

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Speaker 1: in that Darwin Council by election. Now joining us in

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Speaker 1: the studio to tell us a little bit more is

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner Ian Logan. Nathan, good morning

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Speaker 1: to you.

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Speaker 2: Ian, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Now, can you break down those numbers for us in

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Speaker 1: terms of the counting so far.

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Speaker 2: So Katie, as you mentioned that Suki Dorus Walker is

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Speaker 2: a head in the count on twelve hundred and thirty votes,

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Speaker 2: then we've got Sam Weston on one thy fifty seven.

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Speaker 2: In terms of other candidates, Bill Willinski with seven hundred

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Speaker 2: and thirty two votes, Adam Troyn at six hundred and sixty,

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Speaker 2: Leah Potter on five point thirty three, Samuel Ward and

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Speaker 2: five ninety votes.

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Speaker 1: When you actually look at it, it's not a huge

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Speaker 1: number of votes at all. And I know that that's

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Speaker 1: sort of been part of the problem here, hasn't it

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Speaker 1: is that the voter turnout was not great.

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Speaker 2: That's correct, Katie. We had a vota turnout so far

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Speaker 2: of forty eight point eight percent. We had six two

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Speaker 2: hundred and ninety six people vote so far in this election.

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Speaker 1: How does that compare it to other elections that we've

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Speaker 1: had in recent recent sort of months and years.

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Speaker 2: So if you look at the Lions Ward at the

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Speaker 2: local government general election in twenty twenty one, the turnout

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Speaker 2: was sixty one point five percent, so that's a thirteen

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Speaker 2: percent decline. Last year at the Water's Ward by election

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Speaker 2: we had a forty nine point eight percent turnout. In

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs last year we had a forty nine point

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Speaker 2: two percent, and Catherine this year we had a forty

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Speaker 2: five point five percent. So these these are our towns,

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Speaker 2: our large towns as Ease, and we're struggling to get

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Speaker 2: a turnout of fifty percent, well.

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Speaker 1: Less than half the population it's turning out there in all,

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Speaker 1: less than half the population of those on the electoral

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Speaker 1: role turning out to actually vote. Why do you think

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Speaker 1: that is?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think there's a look, there's a lot of reasons, Katie,

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Speaker 2: and some of them it's probably inappropriate for me to

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Speaker 2: provide comment on. But what we do know is that

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Speaker 2: we've got more people on the anti electoral role than

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Speaker 2: we've ever had before, but we have a low percentage

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Speaker 2: of them actually voting.

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Speaker 1: So what work is the Electoral Commission doing to sort

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Speaker 1: of try to get people out to vote for.

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Speaker 2: Us in terms of a by election is to let

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Speaker 2: people who needs to vote, and you know, whether people

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Speaker 2: know that they're in the Lion's Ward is always an issue.

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Speaker 2: We certainly did a lot of social media advertising where

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Speaker 2: we had people's phone numbers or email addresses, we sent

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Speaker 2: them reminders, we did radio advertising, so we're trying to

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Speaker 2: do as much as we can to get that message out. Certainly,

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Speaker 2: in this by election, we've had twelve candidates, so there's

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Speaker 2: been a lot of core flutes in those areas. So

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Speaker 2: you think that people would get some idea that there's

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Speaker 2: a by election happening.

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Speaker 1: So what happens now are people that haven't rocked up

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Speaker 1: to vote, are they going to be fined?

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Speaker 2: What will happen, Katie, is that we will send them

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Speaker 2: a notice asking them whether they have a legitimate excuse

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Speaker 2: as to why they didn't vote at the election.

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Speaker 1: So we sent out that notice and then obviously the

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Speaker 1: Electoral Commission will determine whether they do need to be fined.

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Speaker 1: How much is the fine?

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Speaker 2: The fine's twenty five dollars.

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Speaker 1: Does that need to be raised?

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Speaker 2: Certainly from the Electoral Commission's perspective, the fine used to

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Speaker 2: be fifty dollars and it's decreased to twenty five. We

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Speaker 2: think our position is that the fine should be increased

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Speaker 2: to fifty dollars and that will provide hopefully a little

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Speaker 2: bit more incentive for people to go out and vote.

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Speaker 1: Now, just going back to you to the count Now,

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Speaker 1: what happens next? As you've said, you know you are

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Speaker 1: going through that process. The primary votes, by the sounds

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Speaker 1: of things, have been countered. But what happens next? What

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Speaker 1: are the next like the next steps in this process.

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Speaker 2: So what we have to wait for is the postal

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Speaker 2: votes to still come in. There are five hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty four postal votes that still could come in, and

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Speaker 2: they've got till a Friday week, the fifteenth of September.

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Speaker 2: Once we receive the postal votes, we will obviously count them,

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Speaker 2: and then what we will do is a distribution of preferences.

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Speaker 2: Given the close nature of the count, this election will

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Speaker 2: be determined by preferences.

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Speaker 1: And so we won't really know for a couple of

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Speaker 1: weeks by the sounds of it.

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Speaker 2: Look, you'll know on next Friday, late afternoon, early evening

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Speaker 2: in terms of what the result is.

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Speaker 1: So so next Friday we'll hopefully know, or we will know.

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Speaker 1: We're going to know for sure who the winner is

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Speaker 1: by then.

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Speaker 2: Yes, you will.

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Speaker 1: How disappointing is it for you, like as the electoral

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Speaker 1: commissioner when you do have a turnout that is at

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Speaker 1: forty eight percent?

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Speaker 2: Look, you know it is disappointing. We're certainly trying to

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Speaker 2: engage the electorate. You know, there's some lessons learned here.

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Speaker 2: You know, I suppose a greater concern for us is

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Speaker 2: we've got the territory election next year and certainly we

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Speaker 2: need to have many more Territorians participating in that. The

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Speaker 2: Australian Electoral Commission will be running voiced referendum in six weeks,

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Speaker 2: you know, and we would hope that you know, all

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Speaker 2: Territorians exercise their democratic right and participate in that referendum.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I just think, you know, you've got

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Speaker 1: to turn out and vote, because otherwise you end up

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Speaker 1: you know, people then end up and I know you

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Speaker 1: can't really comment on this, but people then end up

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Speaker 1: winging with the people that are elected. Well, if you

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Speaker 1: don't like the people that are elected, you've got to

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Speaker 1: get out there and you've actually got to make sure

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Speaker 1: that you vote. Counts. Look, absolutely, Katie well Ian Logan, Nathan,

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Speaker 1: no doubt. We'll talk to you again once we find

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Speaker 1: out exactly, you know, how that count is going, but

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Speaker 1: it will be next Friday that will know exactly who

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Speaker 1: the elected member is for the council by election, and

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Speaker 1: when can people expect that they're going to get that

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Speaker 1: notice in the mail to sort of explain why they didn't.

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Speaker 2: Vote, Katie. You know, we'll complete the election and complete

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Speaker 2: the count, and then after that we'll make arrangements in

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Speaker 2: regard to sending out notices.

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Speaker 1: Lean Logan, Nathan. Always good to catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you