The writ for the Warrandyte District by-election was returned on Tuesday 12 September to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Maree Edwards MP.
Electoral Commissioner, Sven Bluemmel noted that it was pleasing to see turnout continues to hold strong in Victorian by-elections, despite a general trend towards lower voter turnout at general elections both in Victoria and around Australia.
“In total 40,623 votes were cast, representing a turnout of 79.67 per cent. This is comparable to other by-elections such as the 2017 Northcote by-election with a 79.04 per cent turnout, and the Narracan supplementary election earlier this year with a 78.85 per cent turnout,” Mr Bluemmel said.
Early voting also continued to be a strong preference for Victorians, with over 50 per cent of voters in Warrandyte District choosing to vote conveniently at an early voting centre or by post.
In an election-first for Victoria, a pilot of low sensory voting hours was trialled at the by-election, with over 300 voters choosing to vote during the designated quiet hours. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the pilot is now underway.
Preference distribution data from the by-election showed the Liberal’s Nicole Werner, the elected candidate, received 21,921 of the first preference votes, followed by the Greens’ Tomas Lightbody who received 7,130 votes.
The number of informal votes recorded during the by-election totalled 2,344.
For statistical purposes, a full preference distribution was conducted and is available at vec.vic.gov.au/preference-distributions
