Day 18: South Perth Has To Keep Running Hard

The weekend has had its usual downward effect on voting returns, possibly exacerbated this weekend by its being the weekend when parents have to get their school-age children ready for the new school year, which starts today. We shall get a clearer indication tomorrow of whether the 'post-weekend' kick-up will be repeated.

At this stage, Kwinana is a clear winner and East Fremantle is still well on track, but South Perth will have to hope that the post-weekend kick-up occurs and, perhaps, that there are procrastinators out there who will vote in the last few days.

City of Cockburn                      33.20%
Town of East Fremantle          46.27%
City of Kwinana                         49.39%
City of South Perth                   41.82%
Town of Victoria Park              32.91%

Votes still needed for 50% (but remember need to add a bit for invalid votes):

City of Cockburn                       10,400

Town of East Fremantle                194

City of Kwinana                               112

City of South Perth                      2,192

Town of Victoria Park                 3,441

Note that the Electoral Commission has clarified its position on what will be excluded from the final count of votes for the 50% requirement for a binding poll. It states that 'the "% Received" also include packages that may need to be rejected due to the declaration not being signed or the declaration having been removed and not returned'.

I presume from this that informal votes (ie ones where the voting paper itself has not been filled in correctly) will be counted. 

If the votes that will not be counted (unsigned or with no declaration) are a substantial proportion, this will make a strong case for reviewing and simplifying the postal voting process - not only for amalgamation polls but for Council elections generally.