Media release – Tasmanian Electoral Commission, 17 June 2022
2022 Compulsory local government elections
Recent amendments to the Local Government Act 1993 mean that voting in local government elections is now compulsory for all electors on the state electoral roll.
Local government elections in Tasmania are a full postal ballot. The introduction of compulsory voting should see an increase the number of postal ballots returned.
TUESDAY – Delivery + Extraction Day.
After the 2pm close, two processes will begin in parallel:
Delivery – All ballots hand-delivered at each council will be transferred to the election offices.
Extraction – For the ballots already with the TEC, staff will extract the ballot papers from the declaration envelopes and balance.
As each council delivery arrives at the TEC, those ballot packs will be checked off the roll, declaration slips removed, votes extracted and added to those already prepared.
WEDNESDAY – Counting begins.
From 9am, ballot papers for all mayor ballots will be hand-counted, followed by the deputy mayor hand-counts.
In parallel, the councillor ballot papers for all councils will commence the first data entry. It is hoped that some first preference figures will be published on the TEC website from around midday.
With the anticipated increase in return, counting will continue early into the next week.
Thinking of standing as a candidate?
While nominations cannot be accepted until the nomination period opens – expected to be Monday 5 September – intending candidates can find the new Candidate Handbook, and some helpful FAQs about candidate expenditure on our website.
