With the dust settling on the Dubbo Regional Council election, and our 10 elected representatives now known, it’s the ideal time to look at how we came to get our new batch of civic leaders.
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On Thursday the NSW Electoral Commission announced the 10 candidates (two from each ward) who had provisionally been elected, pending any demand for a recount. They were John Ryan and Vicki Etheridge (Central), Dayne Gumley and Stephen Lawrence (East), Jane Diffey and Ben Shields (North), Greg Mohr and Kevin Parker (South), and David Grant and Anne Jones (Wellington).
Interpreting statistics is like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder, and that is certainly the case in North Ward.
Incumbent councillor Ben Shields released an email on Thursday stating he got the most votes by a margin of 2650 to Jane Diffey’s 2576.
Election analyst Peter Bartley also emailed, claiming Mrs Diffey had beaten Mr Shields by two votes as Mr Shields’ group member Tyler Przerada attracted 76 individual votes for himself.
What is known for sure is that both elected candidates easily usurped the figure of 1923 votes required to achieve a quota in their ward.
Others to achieve a quota were John Ryan (2416), David Grant (2220), Dayne Gumley (2144), Greg Mohr (2128) and Kevin Parker (1893).
In East, Mr Gumley was elected first, and after Cody Jones and Chris Edwards were excluded, Mr Lawrence was elected on the fourth count as nobody else could beat him.
In Central, Mr Ryan was the first person elected, with Nikki Catelotti and Josh Black excluded, leaving Vicki Etheridge to progress on the fourth count.
In South, Mr Mohr was the first to progress, with Mr Parker achieving a quota on the second count.
Over in Wellington, nobody was elected on the first count. Mike Augee and Mark Griggs were excluded on second and third counts.
On the fourth count Jacob Perry was excluded and his 907 votes were transferred causing David Grant to exceed a quota and be elected and Anne Jones to be too far in front of Adam Ryan to be caught.