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Speaker 1: This Saturday, residents living in Darwin's northern suburbs of Nightcliff,

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Speaker 1: Rapid Greek parts of Coconut Grove are going to be

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Speaker 1: heading to the polling booths to vote in the by election.

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Speaker 1: It comes after the former Green's Member for Nightcliff Cat macnamara,

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Speaker 1: resigned from the position in February, eighteen months after winning

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Speaker 1: the seat. Now joining us on the line is the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner, Kirsten Kelly. Good morning to your commissioner.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, commissioner.

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Speaker 1: Can you tell us how many people have already headed

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Speaker 1: in to vote early?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we've had just under thirty two percent participation

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Speaker 2: for the election. So that's around nineteen hundred electors in

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Speaker 2: the Nightcliff division have casse their vote so far. And

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Speaker 2: just a reminder of these nine hundred and forty one

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Speaker 2: eligible electors required to vote at this election.

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Speaker 1: Now, if they don't vote, are they going to get

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Speaker 1: a fine? What's the ramifications? I mean, I'm not trying

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Speaker 1: to force people to vote, but I want to see

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Speaker 1: everybody turn out in force.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's really important that people do vote and the

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Speaker 2: turnout for a Nightcliffe in the twenty twenty four election

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Speaker 2: was above the Anti average at seventy six point six percent.

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Speaker 2: So there's lots of advertising and core flutes around at

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Speaker 2: the moment, so people should be aware that the election's on.

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Speaker 2: So it is compulsory to vote in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: and local government territory elections and federal elections, and we'd

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Speaker 2: certainly encourage people to do that, and as always, the

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Speaker 2: Anti Electoral Commission will look at the data at the

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Speaker 2: end of the election to consider non voters.

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Speaker 1: Commissioner in terms of that thirty two percent already turning

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Speaker 1: out to vote, like, is that a fairly good turnout

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Speaker 1: so far?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not too bad. We are seeing very strong

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Speaker 2: early voting uptake and so in the twenty twenty four

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Speaker 2: election for the division of Nightcliff, over two and a

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Speaker 2: half thousand people cast their vote at early voting, so

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Speaker 2: we're currently sitting around nineteen hundred now, and so we've

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Speaker 2: got four days left of early voting for election day

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Speaker 2: this Saturday. So early voting, and it's obviously a longer

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Speaker 2: opportunity being two weeks is popular, and we did have

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Speaker 2: early voting available on the Saturday passed and we have

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Speaker 2: our second highest day of voting on that day and

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Speaker 2: not a shorter period, so which is really great.

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Speaker 1: Can you remind our listeners who has to vote in

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Speaker 1: the by election?

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Speaker 2: So anyone who is enrolled so at the close of

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Speaker 2: roles enrolled or has an entitlement to be enrolled and

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Speaker 2: that would be through a declaration vote if they can't

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Speaker 2: be found on the roll and they have that entitlement.

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Speaker 2: So if you live in the suburb of Nightcliffe, if

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Speaker 2: you live in the suburb of Rapid Creek and parts

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Speaker 2: of Coconut Grove, so if you are to the north

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Speaker 2: of Old McMillan's Road in that sovereign estate area, if

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Speaker 2: you're in the Coconut Grove Seniors Village and Colour Luck Community,

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Speaker 2: you're in that area below that you're outside of that area.

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Speaker 2: But if you're unsure, please you can check your enrollment

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Speaker 2: online or you can contact the Ante Electri Commission and

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Speaker 2: we can look you up on the role to confirm Commissioner.

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Speaker 1: Where can people vote on Saturday? I know that some

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Speaker 1: listening this morning are going to be that will be

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Speaker 1: the time when they want to get out there and

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Speaker 1: vote and maybe get a democracy sausage.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely so I understand the Nightcliffe High School. There might

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Speaker 2: be sausages available on that day, which is great. So

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Speaker 2: Nightcliffe High School is the election day voting center, which

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Speaker 2: will be available from eight am until six pm on Saturday,

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Speaker 2: the seventh of March. And early voting is still available

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Speaker 2: this week at sixty nine Progress Drive, which is the

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Speaker 2: Nightcliff Commercial Precinct, which is the old Tenpin Bowling Alley area,

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Speaker 2: and that's available today until Thursday from eight to five

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Speaker 2: and then you get an extra hour on Friday till

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Speaker 2: six o'clous six o'clock Friday for the last day of

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Speaker 2: early voting.

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Speaker 1: Commissioner, what's the process going to be for counting, you know,

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Speaker 1: on on Saturday once the once the polls close, what's

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Speaker 1: the process going to be?

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Speaker 2: Yees. So we're unable to start counts under legislation before

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Speaker 2: six pm, so the voting centers closed at six and

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Speaker 2: then we commence counting from six o'clock. So what we're

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Speaker 2: doing on the Saturday night is what we call a

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Speaker 2: preliminary count. So what we're looking at is all of

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Speaker 2: the early the cast, the votes that cast through early

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Speaker 2: voting period and the election day voting. So once they're counted,

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Speaker 2: we'll be publishing those on the website, and we'll be

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Speaker 2: looking to do a postal count as well for return

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Speaker 2: postal votes as well on the Saturday night. Then Monday

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Speaker 2: we do what we call a fresh scrutiny or a

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Speaker 2: check count, where we're looking at every single ballot paper

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Speaker 2: again like we're seeing it for the first time and

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Speaker 2: counting those through the thirteen day count period while we're

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Speaker 2: waiting for return of postal votes and for any declaration

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Speaker 2: votes to come back and potentially be added to the count.

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Speaker 1: And do you have like is there a you know,

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Speaker 1: is there a two party preferred count or anything like that,

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Speaker 1: or is it just you're literally counting everything.

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Speaker 2: So there is in the legislation, the Electoral Act, that

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Speaker 2: the Commission may to do conducted to candidate preferred, and

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Speaker 2: so just to let everyone know that that actually can

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Speaker 2: be done, and the reason for that is to provide

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Speaker 2: an early indication of who's likely to be leading. And

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Speaker 2: as you know in the past, sometimes the two that

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Speaker 2: are identified aren't the correct two based on the ballot

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Speaker 2: papers and the Electoral Commission we're not political commentators, and

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Speaker 2: we look at his trees of seats and incumbents when

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Speaker 2: deciding that, so it's a discretion for the Commission to

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Speaker 2: do a two candidate preferred. We do appreciate that it

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Speaker 2: does provide early indication, but it doesn't actually affect the results.

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Speaker 2: And we will go through the thirteen day count period

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Speaker 2: and conduct the counts of new ballot papers are added,

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Speaker 2: and then if we're required to the distribution of preferences

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Speaker 2: after the close of postal.

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Speaker 1: And so is that the path you'll go down, because

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Speaker 1: I know there's been sort of I guess, you know,

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Speaker 1: over a number of elections, not even necessarily the most

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Speaker 1: recent one, but I know over some elections people become

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Speaker 1: quite frustrated. Then if it's fairly tight, you know, sometimes

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Speaker 1: the top two that are sort of being counted don't

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Speaker 1: end up being the ones that are the winners.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that certainly was the case in the twenty

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Speaker 2: four election for the division of Nightcliff, and for the

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Speaker 2: first time in the Northern Territory, and I don't think

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Speaker 2: it's been done in other areas of Australia, we actually

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Speaker 2: did a three candidate preferred and again that took a

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Speaker 2: couple of days to set that up because we were

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Speaker 2: also looking to see additional postal votes being returned and

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Speaker 2: added to the count to see whether that would alter

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Speaker 2: the two candidate preferred. So a three candidate preferred was

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Speaker 2: conducted and that information was published and as I said, again,

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Speaker 2: it doesn't affect the final results. They're determined at the end,

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Speaker 2: but it does provide an indication and that three candidate

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Speaker 2: preferred was conducted.

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Speaker 1: And we live in a world where everyone wants everything

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Speaker 1: immediately as well, don't they, So it's hard when they're

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Speaker 1: waiting to see what the count's going.

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Speaker 2: To be, and it is. It's certainly like for elections

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Speaker 2: to be declared elected, you need to have the majority

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Speaker 2: of the votes. So that's more than fifty percent so

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Speaker 2: of the formal votes. So where we do have quite

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Speaker 2: a diverse service offering where people can postal vote in

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Speaker 2: that day period and small sometimes small margins. That fifty

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Speaker 2: percent isn't often achieved on first preferences, and we do

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Speaker 2: have to go to distribution of preferences, but you can't

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Speaker 2: work out what the fifty percent is until you've got

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Speaker 2: all the formal votes in front of you. So it

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Speaker 2: does take time and we do appreciate that it does

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Speaker 2: take that time, but we do look at all of

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Speaker 2: those It is a manual and methodical process and rightly so,

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Speaker 2: and we want to make sure that scrutinys have the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to look through that whole process over that count

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Speaker 2: period as well well.

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Speaker 1: Commissioner, no doubt a busy few days for you and

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Speaker 1: all of the team there at the Northern Territory Electoral Commission.

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Speaker 1: Really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Thank you,