See the attached file for the roll up numbers for each ward.

The main surprise was in Melba ward - where two things changed the probably outcome.

One, many people (almost 50%) didn't take any notice of suzana's how to vote card (That shows that many voters are very smart!). Many voters that had put Suzana first put the greens (Alison) second, even though the greens were at the bottom of suzana's card.

Two, many people DID take notice of my how to vote card - 76% (a Yarra record) were still following it more than half way down ie at position number 5 where I had dale.

- which shows that the ALP campaign (and letter box drop) to convince votes NOT to follow my how to vote card didn't exactly work.. :-)

The end result was that Dale got in ahead of Judy, ie my preferences knocked out the sitting mayor! :-) Considering all the tactics used by the ALP at this election to make sure I didn't get on council, I think Shakespeare said it best in Hamlet

"For tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his owne petar".

I'd like to think that this would change their behavior next time, but that might be a bit to much to expect..

Ian

Here are the preliminary election results

Melba

This was the main battle ground for council - with the ALP wanting to get a 5th seat so that they would have a absolute majority on Council. I ran against 4 ALP supported 'independents', 1 official ALP, 2 greens, and 1 socialist.

The preliminary first preferences were -

The interesting numbers are -
I did a bit better than last time, with 12% vote vs 10% (2004). Given I was running against 4 well supported ALP 'independents' I think that was a good result!

Judy's vote dropped from 22% in 2004 to 18% in 2008 - even though she was the current Mayor and had a massive ALP supported campaign! The ALP were telling me 4 weeks ago that they expected her to be over quota with her primary vote - which shows how out of touch they are. It is well know that Judy didn't want to run this time, and only did so after considerable ALP pressure - they HAD to get her to run to keep me off council!

The greens vote went up from 16% in 2004 to 22% now. While 3% of this would have been from being at the top of the ballot paper, at least 3% was an increase in the green vote.

Th official ALP candidate (Josh) only just scrapped over quota with 26% - where at the last election the official ALP got a combined vote of 43%! Which is probably not too surprising given he has never been to a council meeting prior to the election period, and doesn't live in Richmond. In fact, without the housing commission high rise, he wouldn't have been over quota.

Dale did a lot better than last time, with 10% vs 2%. He ran a lot better campaign this time, and got far more ALP support.

The end result

The ALP achieved it's main aim of keeping me off council, but did not succeed in the secondary objective of getting all three positions.
My preferences will flow to the greens, and the three councillors will be Alison, Judy, and Josh.
And the ALP almost shot themselves in the foot - Dale did so well (and gets suzana's and joes' preferences ahead of Judy) and Judy so poorly, that he almost beat Judy into Council..

Langridge Ward

The interesting numbers are -

Stephen Jolly was massively over quota with 29% of the vote - he received the highest vote of any candidate in any ward - this is over twice his vote last time (12%). Many people (including me) were expecting this, as he was about the only councillor returning phone calls for the last 4 years...

Amanda was only just over quota, and the total Green vote (they ran a split ticket) was 36% - which was lower than the 40% last time. This drop is not unexpected, as 4% of the green vote would have shifted to Steve.

The ALP primary vote (Geoff) was massacred by Steve, falling from 28% last time to only 16% this time.

The end result

Amanda and Steve are in, and all the ALP candidates should roll up into Geoff and get him in. There would have to be a LOT of leakage to get Jenny in, so I do not think that will happen.

NichollsWard

The interesting numbers are -
Jackie's vote dropped from 25% to 22% - I suspect mainly because of the library issue

The combined Green vote (they had a split ticket) went up from 27% to 37%!

The Socialist vote dropped from 6% to 5%.

The ALP combined vote dropped from 27.3% to 25.7% - so Jane just gets in on primary.

Ian Mack received a very good 9%.

The end result

Sam and Jane are over quota, with the most likely third councillor being Jackie.
'Most likely' because it is possible that Gurm could get in due to the preference flows ie

Jackie has 2084 votes (quota is 2388)
Assume she gets all of Janes over quota votes (65), ie for a total of 2149
She would then need 239 votes to leak from Sam's, Ian's, and Anthony's vote flow. ie 15% leakage of their 1686 votes.
This is likely to happen, as leakage is typically 30% - even on the greens card at the last election, leakage was 27%.

So Jackie will be the third councillor.

- Ian Quick

How to vote for me - (download my How To Vote card) 3 CLARKE, Alison (Green) 7 TALEVSKI, Suzana (ALP Supported) 5 SMEDLEY, Dale (ALP Supported) 9 FUNDER, Josh (ALP officially) 8 MORTON, Judy (ALP Supported) 1 QUICK, Ian (SOS endorsed) 6 KRISTENSEN, Joe (ALP Supported) 4 CLAYTON, Davis (Green) 2 DUDLEY, Denise (Socialists) I have put Steve Jollys' party second (Denise has no chance of getting in) followed by the greens, then the ALP supported 'stooge independents', followed by the official ALP candidate. I've done this to STOP the ALP getting more dummy candidates onto council! And my leaflets - leaflet1 , leaflet2, and leaflet3

Yes, I am running for the election this 29th of November (2008) - somebody has to get on council to represent RESIDENTS instead of the party hacks and mainly useless councilors we currently have.
Unlike most candidates, I haven't suddenly popped up to run - many candidates won't have even BEEN to many council meetings, whereas I have been actively involved in helping residents with Council issues for many years. In fact, if you go to the council web site and enter my name in the search box, you'll see that I'm in 129 documents on their own site!

This council has been absolutely useless. Rates have been skyrocketing and councillors have point blank refused to do anything about planning, parking and liquor licensing problems.
Any progress we were making under the previous Council (2002 -2004) stopped dead the day this council was elected - ie one of the first things they did was get rid of both the parking and planning community committees, and from there it went down hill.

You can do something about this mess - vote for me on November 29th, and contact me if you can help with either letter boxing or handing out how to vote cards on the day.

Ian Quick
For more election related articles go to election 2008
Update:
The election campaign is going well, and I'd like to thank all the residents who have been helping out. We have letter-boxed all of Richmond three times now- leaflet1 , leaflet2, and leaflet3.

As I've put on my most recent leaflet - I've added up all the fines that Yarra has issued over the 5 years till June this year.

You can see your street at http://www.yarra.org/parking_enforcement_stats_streets

Unlike many of the candidates at this (2008) council election, I've been attending Council meetings, putting in submissions, and helping residents for many years.

To give you a bit of an idea of what I've been involved with, I'm uploading some of the times I've been quoted in the media - you can access the articles from the 'in the media' link at the top, or on the right.

This contrast with several of the other candidates in Melba (richmond) ward ie

Josh Funder (ALP) - may have been to one or two council meetings, all recently. He also does NOT live in Richmond, and has not been involved with the local community and any council issues.

Joe Kristensen - has never been to a council meeting.

Suzana Talevski - has at most been to one or two recent meetings, and has not been involved in any council processes.

Davis Clayton (Greens) - hasn't been to any meetings that I know of.

Yes, at 4 out of the 9 candidates in the ward that I am running showed no interest in Council until the election..

Local candidates learn to overcome voters' blog
BY ROSEMARY BOLGER
FIRST it was federal politicians on Face-book, now increasing numbers of tech-savvy councillors and council hopefuls are invading the blogosphere to get an unflltered message to voters.
Municipal Association of Victoria president and Port Phillip councillor Dick Gross predicts that almost every councillor and candidate will have a blog in time for the next election in 2012.
Maroondah councillor Alex Makin pioneered the use of blogs to communicate with
ratepayers. The idea has been embraced by council candidates in the lead-up to next month's election.
Yarra councillor Steve Jolly started a blog under the heading "councillor diary" on the Socialist Party's website when he was elected to the council four years ago. Independent candidate for Melba ward, Ian Quick, has been blogging about Yarra issues for several years.
Cr Gross said candidates needed to devote time to their blogs to make them an effective campaign tool.
"I have the impression candidates who set it up without much experience of blogging
were struggling to keep them up to date," Cr Gross said.
He is considering setting up a Facebook site, which he admits would be mostly maintained by his children.
The MAV is likely to offer training and advice to help future candidates and councillors get on top of technology in time for the next election. Those ahead of the pack this year have the advantage of getting their message directly to the electorate.
"The frustration of public office is you feel that the message is never out there with the nuances you want," Cr Gross said.