Ballot draws on Wednesday for local government elections have decided the order of voting cards for council across the Wimmera, Grampians and Mallee regions.

Voters across the Horsham municipality will need to vote in five of the seven wards.
Rebecca Sluggett will be elected uncontested in the Kalimna ward, while Brian Klowss is the only candidate in the Wyn Wyn ward.

The Victorian Electoral Commission confirmed last week that voters in uncontested elections do not need to vote.

However, they will receive a letter in the mail at the same time as the ballot pack mailout, informing them they will not need to vote.

In other Horsham wards, the ballot draws are as follows: Green Park: Brian Basham, Dean O’Loughlin; Horsham North: Todd Wilson, Claudia Haenel, Kathy Ross; May Park: Les Power, Cam McDonald; Oatlands: Angela Munn, Dylan Hesselberg, David Bowe; Pine Lake: Michael Bond, Ian Ross, Toby Haynes.

In Ararat Rural City Council elections, the ballot order is as follows: Rob Armstrong, Peter Beales, Fiona Tipping, Luke Preston, Daryl Scherger, Amanda Mead, Bob Sanders, Osman Kokcu, Bill Waterson, Teli Kaur, Peter Joyce, Jo Armstrong.

Hindmarsh Shire Council’s ballot draw results for the two contested wards were as follows: East ward: Chan Uoy, Debra Nelson, Barry James; North ward: Roger Aitken, Elizabeth Chivell, Tony Clark.
The West ward will be uncontested with the two vacancies going to Rosie Barker and Ron Ismay.

Northern Grampians Shire Council has contested elections in all three wards, with two vacancies in each.

The ballot results were as follows: Central ward: Jenny Greenberger, Kevin Erwin, Lauren Dempsey, Rob Haswell, Karen Hyslop; Grampians ward: Trevor Gready, Justine Hide, Jack Blake, Lisa Whyte; Kara Kara ward: Murray Emmerson, Ross Hudson, Terence Robertson, Karen Probst, John Farrell.

In the West Wimmera Shire, six candidates are vying for five vacancies, with the ballot results: Richard Hicks, Helen Hobbs, Jodie Pretlove, Tim Meyer, Tom Houlihan, Bruce Meyer.

All voters in the Yarriambiack Shire will not be required to vote as elections in all three wards will be uncontested due to the low number of candidates.

The following candidates will be elected: Dunmunkle ward: Melinda Keel, Corinne Heintze; Hopetoun ward: Andrew McLean, Chris Lehmann; Warracknabeal: Karly Kirk, Kylie Zanker.

Following the close of nominations and ballot draws for this year’s council elections, 2231 candidates nominated for 646 council vacancies in 466 separate elections.

The number of candidates this year is higher than the 2186 candidates who nominated for 622 councillor vacancies in 298 separate elections at the 2020 council elections.

A total of 42 of the 466 individual elections are uncontested, where the number of candidates is equal to the number of vacancies.
 Council elections are conducted by postal vote, with ballot packs to begin being mailed out on October 7.

Voting closes at 6pm on October 25, with election results declared on November 15.

People can find out what ward they are enrolled in by visiting https://maps.vec.vic.gov.au/ and entering their address.

• Last week’s Weekly Advertiser story ‘Candidates confirmed’ omitted the names of four candidates due to their names not being included on the Victorian Electoral Commission website after the noon deadline to nominate. 

Candidates Kathy Ross, Horsham; James Barry and Elizabeth Chivall, Hindmarsh; and Luke Preston, Ararat, were not published on the VEC website before The Weekly Advertiser’s afternoon print deadline.

• Starting in next week’s edition, The Weekly Advertiser will publish profiles on candidates across the six municipalities covered in the region. 

The entire September 25, 2024 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire September, 25, 2024 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!