WAY back on 18 May 2023 (fifteen months ago) I wrote a piece on local government expressing the view that it was not “fit for purpose”.

When the date for candidates to be enrolled passed for this month’s election, the excitement started.

We all know the incompetence of one major political party failing to pass on their list of candidates, which just shows how seriously the big players feel about local government.

In the recent round of elections, the NSW Electoral Commission declared uncontested ballots in fourteen areas.

In another nine Council areas there are some sixteen wards that will be uncontested and one mayoral election will be uncontested for the same reason.

A lack of commitment no doubt.

As voting is compulsory, we must front up and put numbers on the ballot paper, and we are fined if a valid excuse is not accepted by authorities.

If we don’t like the idea of local government, how it operates, or the candidates on offer, how do we show our displeasure?

Rather than not voting and being subjected to a fine or telling porkies that we were out fishing or interstate at that time, the traditionally preferred method was to vote informally and not select any candidate.

The interesting factor here was that if any polling booth or suburban area recorded a measurable informal vote, then electoral authorities wanted to know why and an informal inquiry was held to determine an answer.

Following the election, when the counting is completed and published, it will be interesting to see if the informal vote or its percentage is published.

In recent elections I have not noticed that number being available and this has me wondering whether the informal vote might be high enough to cause concern.

By John BLACKBOURN