Sunday Morning 09 September 2012

If you are interested in the early count it is available HERE under ‘Port Stephens Council,’ and gives the breakdown of the primary election night count for the Mayoral contest and the Councillors, in the individual booths, in each Ward.

At this stage it does not show the Pre Poll vote which was substantial (4681 East ward alone) or the Postal Vote. It does not include the results of the preferencing, which because of the tactics employed by some groups will be very interesting.

Our initial observations from scrutineering last night indicated that some of these preferencing plays that we have been revealing on these posts and in our Press Releases, which were then picked up by the Examiner, may have backfired on some of the candidates.  It appears that the confusion generated has caused a very high informal vote and that there was a leakage of preferences in the opposite direction to that intended in some cases.

Voters were telling us that they were aware that preferencing was a major issue in the election but were having difficulty in sorting out who was who.

It appears the major issue that TRRA tried to focus on in the campaign, Accountability of the previous Council for it’s actions, got washed away in the plethora of cardboard signs and advertising on mobile billboards ,the sides of semitrailers etc.  Most of the Candidates, with notable exceptions, bolted after we asked a few straight questions at our first Candidates Forum at Soldiers Point then castigated the TRRA for having the temerity to apply any scrutiny to them before the election at all!

We will analyse the results as they come to hand and share our interpretation of the implications with you. The people have spoken and made their decision based on the information they were given, let’s hope that it was enough to make a good one for the sake of Port Stephens.

More as results come in, check the link above for the latest