March 23, 2016
South Burnett Deputy Mayor Keith Campbell has packed up his desk, ready either to shift into the Mayor’s office – as now seems most likely – or, in his own words “out the side door to the car park”.
With almost 17,000 first preference votes counted by 6:00pm Wednesday, Cr Campbell had a lead of 1193 over his nearest rival, Cr Damien Tessmann.
However, as he has achieved just 30.26 per cent of the vote, it is still mathematically possible for preference votes to push another candidate over the line.
Cr Campbell said on Wednesday that “things were looking good” for him but he would wait for the final declaration of the poll next week before claiming victory.
There are 22,421 votes at play in this year’s South Burnett Regional Council election.
Observers have told southburnett.com.au most residents just “voted 1” for their candidate of choice, ignoring the opportunity to select other preferences (see explanation of Optional Preferential Voting, below) so it appears unlikely preferences will erode all of Cr Campbell’s current lead.
Cr Campbell said he greatly appreciated the support so many people had shown him but promised if he was elected he would be a Mayor for everyone, regardless of whether people had voted for him or not.
He also paid tribute to the other candidates who had put up their hands for the role, and wished them good luck as the counting progressed.
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The results in South Burnett Divisions 2 and 3 may also be determined on preferences but there are clear leaders in each.
Gavin Jones (Division 2) and Danita Potter (Division 3) have comfortable margins over their opponents.
At 6:00pm on Tuesday, Roz Frohloff had secured 48.5 per cent of the vote in Division 1 so it is likely she will reach the 50 per cent mark as counting continues.
Divisions 4 and 6 look to have been decided although counting is continuing.
In Division 4, Terry Fleischfresser appears to have narrowly defeated rival Andrew Saal with 53.01 per cent of votes.
And Cr Ros Heit has 61.54 per cent of the vote in Division 6.
Cr Kathy Duff has already been returned unopposed in Division 5.
- Related article: South Burnett Election Results
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Optional Preferential Voting
The Electoral Commission of Queensland says Optional Preferential Voting can be described as “vote for one, vote for some, or vote for all”.
Optional Preferential Voting is used in State elections, Mayoral elections and for councillors where Divisions exist (such as the South Burnett and Gympie council areas).
1. Ballot papers are sorted and counted into formal and informal votes. Ballot papers without a clear first preference are set aside as informal votes.
2. Formal ballot papers are sorted by first preferences for each candidate and counted. If a candidate receives an absolute majority of first preference votes (50 per cent + 1) , the candidate wins the election outright on primary votes.
3. If no candidate wins a majority of first preference votes, the preference votes are then counted to determine a winner.
4. The second count is done by excluding the candidate with the fewest votes, and distributing the second preferences on these ballot papers.
5. Ballot papers with no second preference marked are set aside as exhausted votes.
6. A new majority is calculated. If a candidate has a majority (50% + 1) of votes after preferences are distributed, that candidate is the winner.
5. If no candidate has a majority of votes after the second count, it is necessary to continue to a third count by excluding the candidate with the next fewest votes and distributing the preferences as before.
6. Counting continues until one candidate has a majority of votes.
NB. First-Past-the-Post Voting is used for voting for councillors (not mayors) in undivided local governments (such as Cherbourg, Toowoomba and Western Downs council areas)
