Queue for voting

By Shaun Inguanzo
RESIDENTS will have to queue up at polling booths for council elections after Greater Dandenong councillors chose attendance voting as their preferred method for this year’s council elections.
Cleeland Ward councillor Paul Donovan attempted to buck the trend by instead recommending that councillors vote for the postal method, in which voters are mailed their voting slips instead of being required to attend local polling booths to elect their ward councillors.
Cr Donovan said postal voting would save residents having to queue at polling booths and also slash the overall costs of the election, which is scheduled to be held on 29 November.
He had the support of Springvale South Ward councillor Yvonne Herring and mayor John Kelly, but the trio of votes was not enough to win the overall vote, with the remaining councillors happy to stay with the attendance voting method.
Keysborough Ward councillor Roz Blades voted against postal method based on the fact that the literature distributed may not be understood by non-English speaking residents.
“Unlike 89 per cent of other Victorian councils (who use postal voting) we have 156 different languages in Greater Dandenong,” she said.
She added that councillors liked being at polling booths to meet residents face to face.
Meanwhile, councillors supported a formal submission from the City of Greater Dandenong to the Victorian Electoral Commission that recommends the city’s ward and councillor structure remain intact.
In the past, some councils have opted for a proportional voting system with multiple-councillor wards as opposed to Greater Dandenong’s single ward, single councillor system that uses preferential voting.