NSW Election guide 2019: How to vote

Voting can be a complex exercise for first-timers or those who find a massive sheet of names and numbers intimidating.

• Meet the candidates: Your guide to Campbelltown and Macquarie Fields
• At a glance: Camden and Wollondilly candidates
• NSW Votes: The big issues for a first-time voter

Voting can be a complex exercise for first-timers or those who find a massive sheet of names and numbers confronting.

But doing a bit of research and arming yourself with some facts and figures and information can make the voting process less painful, and hopefully more rewarding knowing your vote has been considered and cast with the best intentions.

The Macarthur region is split into four electorates:

CAMPBELLTOWN

Safe Labor 7.3%

Greg Warren (Labor) since 2015.

Greg Warren. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Profile: The electorate of Campbelltown takes in the Campbelltown town centre as well as the suburbs of Eagle Vale, Claymore, Leumeah, Bradbury, Glen Alpine, Ambarvale, Rosemeadow, Kentlyn, Ruse, Airds and St Helens. It also includes semi-rural Menangle Park and Wedderburn. The electorate covers 234 square kilometres, though more than half of this is in the Holsworthy army reserve.

The 2011 election saw a swing of 21.8 per cent delivering Campbelltown to the Liberal Party for the first time. A repeat performance in this traditional Labor seat was always unlikely, and first-term Liberal MP Bryan Doyle was defeated by Labor’s Greg Warren at the 2015 election.

MACQUARIE FIELDS

Safe Labor 8.1%

Anoulack Chanthivong. Picture: Angelo Velardo

Anoulack Chanthivong (Labor) since 2015.

Profile: The electorate of Macquarie Fields covers the suburbs of Casula, Glenfield, Macquarie Fields, Ingleburn, Minto, St Andrews, Raby, Kearns and Eschol Park. The electorate covers 94.2 square kilometres.

Always a safe seat, Dr Andrew McDonald was elected at the 2007 election and re-elected in 2011. Dr McDonald retired at the 2015 election, and was succeeded by current MP Anoulack Chantivong.

CAMDEN

Very Safe Liberal 18.3%

The retiring Liberal MP is Chris Patterson, who has represented Camden since 2011.

Profile: Once a rural electorate, Camden is now dominated by new housing estates. The whole of the Camden local government area is included in the electorate, taking in the suburbs of Camden, Narellan, Mt Annan and Currans Hill as well as Leppington and Cobbitty. The electorate also includes Camden Park from Wollondilly shire, and most of the rural western end of Liverpool Council, including Austral, Rossmore, Bringelly and Badgerys Creek. It covers 331 square kilometres.

Chris Patterson was elected by a 22.8% swing in 2011, and easily re-elected in 2015.

WOLLONDILLY

Very Safe Liberal 17.3%

Vacant after retiring Liberal MP Jai Rowell resigned in December 2018. Rowell had represented the seat since 2011.

Profile: Covers almost all of Wollondilly shire as well as the northern parts of Wingecarribee shire. The electorate starts just beyond the southern suburbs of Camden and Campbelltown, and runs down the Hume Highway to Bowral and Mittagong. It also includes Warragamba, The Oaks, Picton, Bargo, Appin and Wilton. The seat covers 3327.5 square kilometres, though more than half of the physical area of the electorate is taken up by the catchment area for Warragamba Dam and Sydney’s southern dams.

Jai Rowell claimed the seat from the ALP in 2011 and was easily re-elected at the 2015 election.

Former Wollondilly MP Jai Rowell is not recontesting the election.

SATURDAY, MARCH 23: Voting centres will be open from 8am to 6pm on election day.

PRE-POLLING: Visit elections.nsw.gov.au for ivote options

THE ELECTION: State elections and by-elections are called so that voters can elect members of: the Legislative Assembly (the lower house of the NSW parliament) and the Legislative Council (the upper house of the NSW parliament)

VOTING: When you vote in person at a voting centre at a State election, you will be given two ballot papers: a large one for the Legislative Council and a small one for the Legislative Assembly.

ASSEMBLY: The NSW Legislative Assembly has 93 members. Each member represents one electoral district for a four-year term. Elections are held every four years using an optional preferential voting system. Each electoral district has a unique ballot paper, and you may only vote for the candidates running in your electoral district.

HOW TO VOTE: To vote, you must put a number 1 in the square next to the candidate you want to elect. If you want, you can show more choices by putting a number 2 next to your second choice, then a number 3 next to your third choice and so on. It is up to you how many choices you show after your first preference.

COUNCIL: The NSW Legislative Council has 42 members. Each member represents the whole state in parliament for an eight-year term. Elections are held every four years using a proportional representation voting system; voters elect half the Legislative Council at one election, and the other half at the next.

HOW TO VOTE: When completing your ballot paper, you must choose between voting ‘above the line’ or ‘below the line’. You cannot vote both above and below the line.

Above the line

You must put a number 1 in one of the group voting squares above the thick horizontal line on the ballot paper. By doing this you are voting for that whole group of candidates in the order they are listed below that square, starting from the top.

Below the line

You can vote below the line if:

you want to vote for candidates within a group in the order of your choice

​you want to vote for candidates from different groups in the order of your choice

you only want to vote for ungrouped candidates

you want to vote for a mixture of grouped and ungrouped candidates.

You must put a number 1 next to your first choice candidate. Then you must put number 2, then number 3 and continue until number 15. You must choose at least 15 candidates below the line for your vote to be counted, but you can show more choices by putting more numbers if you wish, starting with the number 16.

POLLING BOOTHS: Visit https://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/Voters/Voting-in-person-on-election-day

MORE INFORMATION: elections.nsw.gov.au