The scrutiny and count of votes will begin at 9:00 am on Saturday 12 November at the locations appointed by each council.
From 9:00 am, deputy returning officers will coordinate the initial process of removing declaration flaps from declaration envelopes, and then extracting and reconciling ballot papers. Once completed, ballot papers will be checked for formality. For some councils, this may take several hours.
Preference distributions will begin following the formality check, commencing with any mayoral count. All mayoral counts are expected to be completed on Saturday. Deputy returning officers will then conduct a distribution to first preferences for any counts selected for data entry, which has been previously communicated to the relevant candidates. Remaining counts will then be completed, with larger councils returning from 9:00 am on Sunday 13 November to continue.
Provisional declarations will be made at the conclusion of the count for each election and results will be available on our website throughout the day.