SATURDAY’S By-Election to fill two vacant councillor positions on Coonamble Shire Council is looking like a closer contest than many expected.
The counting of first preference votes is complete and as the Coonamble Times goes to print it seems likely that Pat Cullen will follow his uncle Phil and brother Tom into local politics with 684 votes out of 2065 formal votes cast.
Candidate Mark Vaughan’s position is clearer.
Despite outpolling all but Mr Cullen in Coonamble on Saturday, Mr Vaughan achieved the 399 votes overall, 74 votes behind Margaret Garnsey on 473 and 110 behind Barbara Deans with 509 votes.
The tally on Tuesday morning shows Mrs Deans holding 24.65% of properly completed ballots, ahead of Mrs Garnsey’s 22.91% while Mr Cullen attracted 33.12% of the formal vote.
The second spot on council is not clear cut as the count continues and the preferences from Mr Vaughan’s creditable 19.32% of the total formal vote are being distributed.
Returning Officer Janet Sternbeck said, “The first round of counting is complete but we won’t know a final result until all the preferences go in.”
“We are still inputting the votes and everything needs to be checked,” she said.
“We should know the result by late Tuesday afternoon.”
The By-Election was conducted by the NSW Electoral Commission and employed three staff at the Coonamble High School polling place, two at Gulargambone Central School and three in the Returning Officer’s office where the final checks are conducted.
There was a strong turnout to the Pre-polling which operated at the Coonamble Shire Council offices for the two weeks leading into the By-Election with 937 people taking advantage of the opportunity this time around compared to 727 in the May 2018 By-Election.
Similarly, 143 people submitted postal votes in this By-Election compared to 111 last year.
Voters in ‘Declared Institutions’ such as Koonambil accounted for 17 of this year’s votes with Mr Cullen winning 8 of those.
However the final determination now rests on the distribution of preferences and with Mr Vaughan receiving the lowest primary vote his ballot papers could well decide the outcome.
On his How to Vote card, Mr Vaughan recommended his supporters vote [2] for Mrs Garnsey, [3] for Mrs Deans and [4] for Mr Cullen.
With almost 400 votes to be distributed in the second round and only a small number of votes dividing the candidates, Mr Vaughan’s preferences will definitely determine who gains the second councillor position and, even though it’s a long shot, could possibly thwart Mr Cullen’s claim on a seat at council.
In the 5 May 2018 By-Election, roughly one third of Mr Vaughan’s votes did not contain any second or third choice so did not contribute to the final result but even with two thirds (approximately 266) of his 2019 preferences to be shared among the three remaining candidates the results may go down to the wire.
The new councillors are expected to be sworn in at or before the July Council meeting.
General Manager Hein Basson says he is in the process of organising an external trainer from Local Government NSW to provide comprehensive training for both newly-elected and existing councillors in early August.
“This will also be a team-building exercise for councillors,” Mr Basson said.
“This will benefit the operation of the shire going forward.”
