VEC demands e-voting, party membership disclosure in council elections

4 hours ago 3

Weeks-long postal voting in council elections should be replaced by electronic voting, and candidates should declare political party memberships, the Victorian Electoral Commission has urged the state government.

In its post-election review of the chaotic 2024 local government elections, released on Wednesday, the VEC said the logistics of running a postal vote for the state’s 79 councils was unsustainable and urged the government to investigate electronic alternatives.

A long queue for voting at Drill Hall in the City of Melbourne on the day of the postal voting deadline for council elections in October 2024.

“The sustainability of a wholly postal model for local government elections, both logistically and from a cost perspective, cannot be guaranteed,” the report says.

The electoral commission said that a shift to e-voting would require a clear legislative framework and should be informed by meaningful debate.

The October 2024 council election periods were plagued by a weeks-long voting count, two instances of vote fraud and intense public concern about a lack of transparency in both candidate affiliations and campaign donations.

The report also recommends bringing Victoria into line with NSW, South Australia and Queensland by telling voters on ballots whether a candidate is a member of a registered political party, which would close a loophole exploited by members running as “independents”.

The call follows this masthead’s campaign on the matter throughout the election.

Under the current system, on a voluntary questionnaire submitted with their nomination forms, candidates are only asked if they are formally endorsed by a political party. Endorsement means a major political party has vetted, endorsed and financially backed the candidate to run.

But as revealed by The Age, many “independent” candidates – such as those in Brimbank – were in fact members of a major political party (Labor, in the case of Brimbank), running without formal endorsement but still bound by party rules that dictate their values and voting patterns in the chamber.

The VEC noted that the public’s desire for information about candidates’ political associations “appears to call for a lower threshold than formal endorsement”.

“Party membership is an accepted indicator of candidates’ political engagement and motivations, even when parties do not routinely pre-select and endorse candidates for local government elections,” the report says.

But the proposed reform is not watertight. Crucially, the VEC’s recommendation does not propose making the questionnaire itself mandatory, meaning candidates could still omit their party membership entirely if they choose not to submit the voluntary questionnaire with their nomination forms.

Among the other recommendations is an overhaul of local government structures to address explosive population growth in some parts of Melbourne.

The report advocates an increase in the maximum number of councillors beyond the current 12-person limit to ensure high-growth municipalities like Casey and Whittlesea achieve fair representation.

The 2024 elections were run at an unprecedented scale, with 466 individual elections – an increase of 168 since 2020 due to the defaulting of single-member wards – and a wholly postal vote, blowing out the number of candidates and triggering the lengthy counting process.

Despite the issues, Electoral Commissioner Sven Bluemmel said the election process itself was successful, with the two instances of fraud detected quickly and a record low informal vote.

“The 2024 council elections were the most complex to date and they were successfully delivered,” Bluemmel said. “Our focus is on the integrity of elections. When issues arose, our people and systems caught them quickly and responded rapidly.”

Minister for Local Government Nick Staikos was approached for comment.

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