Western Australian Consolidated Regulations Western Australian Consolidated Regulations (1) The returning
officer shall at the time and at the place appointed for the holding of the
ballot proceed, in the presence of the registrar and of the scrutineers (if
any) appointed by any of the candidates, to open all the envelopes addressed
to and received by him, and to remove the envelopes marked “Ballot
Paper” and counterfoils therefrom.
(2) The returning
officer shall —
(a)
reject any envelope marked “Ballot Paper” that is returned without
a counterfoil or with an unsigned counterfoil;
(b) open
the envelopes marked “Ballot Paper” that have not been rejected;
and
(c)
ascertain the number of votes cast in favour of the respective candidates.
(3) Where votes are
recorded on a ballot paper for more or less candidates than the number of
candidates to be elected the returning officer shall declare the votes cast in
that ballot paper to be invalid and shall not count those votes, except that
where a candidate withdraws from an election between the date of nomination
and the date of the election the votes cast in a ballot paper shall not be
invalid by reason only that a vote has been cast in favour of such withdrawn
candidate.
(4) Having counted the
votes the returning officer shall duly declare elected the candidates (not
exceeding the number of vacancies) who have received the greatest number of
valid votes or, in the event of an equal number of valid votes being received
by 2 or more candidates, the candidate or candidates in whose favour he
exercises his casting vote or votes.
(5) In the case of an
equality of votes, the returning officer shall have a casting vote.
(6) As soon as
practicable after declaring the result of the election the returning officer
shall give notice thereof to the Council.
[Regulation 12 amended in Gazette
27 Jun 1997 p. 3103-4.]