Ballot draw favours Labor’s John Kennedy ahead of key rivals in Hawthorn

The Animal Justice Party has topped the ballot for Hawthorn at the Victorian Electoral Commission’s draw on Friday, with Labor’s John Kennedy second.

Kennedy was absent from the draw for positions on the ballot paper in the marginal seat as he has contracted COVID-19. The ballot paper draw is allocated randomly via a computer program developed by the VEC and has been used since 1999. Prior to that, the ballot draws were conducted with wooden numbered balls pulled from a bingo barrell.

Labor MP for Hawthorn John Kennedy has drawn second on the ballot for the seat at this month’s election.Credit: Eddie Jim

He drew a position above both of his main competitors, teal candidate Melissa Lowe, who is fifth, and Liberal John Pesutto, who is seventh on the ballot out of eight candidates. The Greens’ Nick Savage is sixth on the ballot.

ABC Election Analyst Antony Green said appearing at the top of the ballot would not make too much of a difference as there were only eight candidates to nominate in Hawthorn.

“It might mean half a per cent to one per cent,” he said. “It’s been measured to be as much as one per cent. The bigger the ballot paper the more it matters.”

Hawthorn was one of the tightest races at the last state election. Just 330 votes separated Kennedy from Pesutto in 2018, when the Labor MP defeated the Liberal candidate to become the ALP’s first member for Hawthorn in 63 years, and only the second non-conservative candidate to hold the seat.

Independent Lowe would be the first woman to win Hawthorn if she emerges victorious on November 26.

The state seat of Hawthorn sits entirely within the federal electorate of Kooyong, which was won by teal independent Monique Ryan in May.

The entire draw had Faith Fuhrer from the Animal Justice Party first, Kennedy second, Family First’s Ken Triantafillis third, Liberal Democrat Richard Peppard fourth, Lowe fifth, Savage from the Greens six, Pesutto seventh and Labor DLP candidate Stratton Bell last.

This story is part of our in-depth local coverage of the key seats of Hawthorn, Melton and Richmond at the November state election.