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Speaker 1: We know that the twenty twenty five local government elections

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Speaker 1: are going to be held this month in sixteen councils

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Speaker 1: across the Northern Territory. Territorians will vote to elect council

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Speaker 1: representatives for their local communities. There will be fifty four

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Speaker 1: elections held for one hundred and forty four vacancies in

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Speaker 1: sixteen local governments. Now joining us on the line is

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner, Kirsten Kelly. Good morning to you.

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Speaker 1: Good morning Katie, Commissioner, thanks for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Now have the nominations closed for the local government election? Now?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they have closed at twelve noon yesterday was the

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Speaker 2: close of non So today's an important day where we'll

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Speaker 2: be declaring the candidates for the twenty twenty five local

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Speaker 2: government elections are from twelve noon today.

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Speaker 1: So what's the process with that declaration.

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Speaker 2: So it's a public process. We will be streaming the nomination,

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Speaker 2: the declaration of nomination process on through our website. That

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Speaker 2: links available and will be available in our socials as well.

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Speaker 2: So what we do is is that in order of

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Speaker 2: councils alphabetically, we will declare the candidates firstly, in order

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Speaker 2: that the candidates nominations were received by the Electoral Commission,

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Speaker 2: and then we use a random number generator to determine

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Speaker 2: the order that the candidates appear on the ballot paper.

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Speaker 1: And are you anticipat well, obviously you know how many

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Speaker 1: people have sort of put their hand up. Are you

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Speaker 1: able to reveal that yet at this point in time

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Speaker 1: or can you tell us whether it's a.

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Speaker 2: Lot so unable to because that information will certainly be

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Speaker 2: made public at the public declaration. But what I can

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Speaker 2: tell you in twenty twenty one, there was three hundred

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Speaker 2: and three candidates that participated in the forty five elections, sorry,

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Speaker 2: in the elections then where there was one hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty nine vacancies mypologies in sixty elections. So local government,

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Speaker 2: the lots of interest in local government elections to the

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Speaker 2: number of elections.

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Speaker 1: Kirston, Sometimes it feels like it's going to have more

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Speaker 1: people involved in the Darwin Cup more, you know, more

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Speaker 1: more humans in the race to become to get on

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Speaker 1: the local government. That what there is horses in the

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Speaker 1: horse race. Look, and we'll wait and see just how

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Speaker 1: many obviously at midday today, but can you sort of

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Speaker 1: talk us through you know what the next steps are,

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Speaker 1: I guess after we find out who's running.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, so people will be able to feel Territorians

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Speaker 2: will be able to see on the ANTICH website later

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Speaker 2: on today or early in the evening the candidates, the

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Speaker 2: list of candidates, and then the next step is is

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Speaker 2: that we then start printing the ballot paper, so that

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Speaker 2: takes a little bit of time, and then we're still

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Speaker 2: managing our logistics in regards to you know, where teams

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Speaker 2: are going and if there's any changes following the declaration

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Speaker 2: of nom But for listeners, the next important thing is

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Speaker 2: planned to we're going to vote. So you can go

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Speaker 2: onto the nt Electric Comission website and find your closest

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Speaker 2: voting center. They're listed by alphabetically, but there's also a

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Speaker 2: tool where you can put your address in and find

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Speaker 2: where you're close voting centers for the election, and just

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Speaker 2: a reminder of there's no centers available to you. Postal

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Speaker 2: votes are still open. So that's really important too.

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Speaker 1: And what's the process or what kind of process does

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Speaker 1: the electoral commissioner have to get involved in then when

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Speaker 1: it comes to remote areas.

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Speaker 2: Yes, so what we do we have a policy and

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Speaker 2: it's similar to the Australian Electric Commission, where we provide

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Speaker 2: a voting service where there's ten or more people on

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Speaker 2: the electoral role. So that means that we'll have teams

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Speaker 2: of sixteen teams going out to remote communities visiting visiting

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Speaker 2: any areas where we can see that there's ten or

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Speaker 2: more people elected. So that's for quite a significant logistical

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Speaker 2: involving road air to get to those communities. And we

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Speaker 2: work with the councils who are really important stakeholder and

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Speaker 2: client in this election to make sure that people in

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Speaker 2: community know when our teams are going to be in

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Speaker 2: town or in community.

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Speaker 1: And Commissioner in terms of you know the different areas

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Speaker 1: where there are obviously going to be you know where

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Speaker 1: people are going to have to vote. It's sixteen local governments.

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Speaker 1: Are there a couple that aren't actually going to their

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Speaker 1: election at this point in time is Tenant Creek.

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Speaker 2: So in the Northern Territory we have eighteen local government councils.

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Speaker 2: So for the twenty twenty five election, there are only

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Speaker 2: sixteen councils participating in the election. So Barkley Regional Council,

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Speaker 2: which includes the Tenant Creek area and group Island Archipelago

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Speaker 2: Regional Council aren't participating in this election because they had

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Speaker 2: a general election in March this year and November last year,

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Speaker 2: so electors in those areas aren't required to participate in

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Speaker 2: this election. All right.

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Speaker 1: Now for our listeners, when will they be able to

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Speaker 1: sort of see who is running? Is that information which

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Speaker 1: will be available on the Electoral Commission's website.

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Speaker 2: So absolutely so from tonight. So if people are looking

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Speaker 2: late this afternoon or online, they'll be able to see

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Speaker 2: the candidates. So there'll be images of the candidates there.

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Speaker 2: The photographs of the candidates and where the candidates have

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Speaker 2: given consents for their details or links to social media

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Speaker 2: pages to find out more about those candid have been provided.

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Speaker 2: Electors will be able to look at that as well.

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Speaker 1: And Commissioner in terms of you know, with the local

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Speaker 1: government election, do preferences like, are we in a situation

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Speaker 1: where preferences count?

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Speaker 2: So this is a really important one is that it's

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Speaker 2: a full preferential voting. So we know electors in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory required to put a number one through to

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Speaker 2: the number of candidates in order of their choice, so

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Speaker 2: it's always the choice of the elector. If the elector

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Speaker 2: chooses to take how to vote that's been given by

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Speaker 2: a candidate and follow them, that's their choice. But it's

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Speaker 2: always the choice of the elector. The preferences are important, yeah,

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Speaker 2: local government elections where someone doesn't get elected on first preferences,

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Speaker 2: and then we're looking at distribution of preferences, and that's

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Speaker 2: where preferences are important.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because I think this is something that people sort

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Speaker 1: of struggle with a little bit after the last Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory election, maybe not really understanding you know, how those

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Speaker 1: preferences work.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So again it's the always the elector's choice. And

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Speaker 2: you see written at the bottom of the pallet paper

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Speaker 2: it'll ask or give the instruction to the elected to

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Speaker 2: put it's in order of their choice, to number the

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Speaker 2: ballot boxes in order of their choice. So again it's

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Speaker 2: always the choice of the elector, regardless of what might

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Speaker 2: be on a candidate's preference. What the elector puts on

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Speaker 2: the ballot paper is how the vote is counted and

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Speaker 2: then how the preferences are distributed.

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Speaker 1: Now, Commissioner, just remind us when are people going to

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Speaker 1: be able to start to vote. When's that early voting open?

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Speaker 2: So Early voting starts from the eleventh of August.

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Speaker 1: Eleventh of August, and then we are going to the polls.

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Speaker 1: What day are we going to the polls again?

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Speaker 2: So election day is the twenty third of August, Saturday, twenty.

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Speaker 1: Thirty, twenty third of August. Well, it is going to

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Speaker 1: be a busy time for you, it'll be a busy

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Speaker 1: time for me and anybody who's put their hand up

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Speaker 1: I suppose absolutely good on you. Thank you so very

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Speaker 1: much for your time this morning. Commissioner Northern Territory Electoral

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Speaker 1: Commissioner Kirsten Kelly, thank you.

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Speaker 2: Thanks