00:00Now, I'm sure you're all aware that two Northern Tasmanian councillors, Jess Green from the
00:05West Tamar Council and George Razay from the City of Launceston, have been elected to State
00:10Parliament. You might be wondering, where does that leave us? After all, Tasmanian law
00:15is very clear on the matter. Any local councillor who is elected to another level of government
00:21has to give up their seat, meaning there are these two vacancies on these councils which
00:25have to be filled, as well as the matter of finding a new deputy mayor on the West Tamar
00:29Council to replace Miss Green. If you're anything like me and get a bit of a twitch whenever
00:34someone mentions the words elections or voting, you can rest easy. We aren't going to be sent
00:40back to the polls for a third time this year. That being said, voters will still decide Miss
00:46Green and Professor Razay's replacements when, in the coming weeks, the Electoral Commission
00:51carries out a recount. Through this process, each of the former councillors' votes from
00:57the 2022 local government elections are tallied up and distributed among the remaining eligible
01:03candidates according to preferences. I say eligible, as in Miss Green's case, a lot of
01:10her preferences went to people who went on to become councillors, and for Professor Razay,
01:16a lot of his votes ended up going to Cecily Rosol, who is also a State MP. Based on the preference
01:24flows in 2022, it's looking like Jacob Gelston, Bob Salt and Paul Spencer are all strong contenders
01:31for the Launceston recount, while Caroline Larner, Tim Moynarski and Peter Carney are all
01:36in with a shot in West Tamar. As for the deputy mayor vacancy, that'll be up to West Tamar
01:42councillors to decide, picking one from their number to see out the remainder of the council
01:46term, which ends in 2026. And then we'll all be sent back to vote.
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