Date announced for Asher vacancy countback

THE new councillor for the City of Greater Geelong will be chosen before the end of this month, with the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) announcing the date of the countback to fill the spot left by the departing Stephanie Asher.

The countback to fill the extraordinary vacancy in the council’s Bellarine Ward will be held online on August 28.

Ms Asher announced her resignation, effective immediately, on July 30.

The VEC will hold a countback of all formal votes from the Bellarine Ward in the 2020 City of Greater Geelong council election to fill the vacancy.

Votes will be redistributed to candidates who were unsuccessful in 2020 but are still eligible to be elected.

The countback is based on the proportional representation method of counting, which means candidates must achieve a proportion of votes known as a quota.

“The candidate who gets the quota will be elected,” VEC election manager Susan Thompson said.

“If no candidate reaches the quota, the candidate with the highest number of countback votes will be elected.”

According to the 2020 council election results, Corey Wolverton (9.12 per cent) and Tom O’Connor (8.07 per cent) had the next highest shares of first preference votes in Bellarine Ward.

The successful candidate will be the third new face to join the city’s council in eight months, following Sarah Hathway, who replaced the resigning Kylie Grzybek on June 28; and Melissa Cadwell, who was elected in January after Sarah Mansfield successfully ran for a seat in the Legislative Council at the state election.

A link to join the countback will be available from 9:30am on August 28 at vec.vic.gov.au

Candidates and other interested parties can watch the countback.

The result will be published online at vec.vic.gov.au and in local newspapers.