City of Greater Geraldton has lowest return rate of election packages so far in Mid West Gascoyne

The City of Greater Geraldton has the lowest rate of returned ballots from voters so far in the Mid West and Gascoyne for the upcoming local government elections.

As of Monday, 3698 returned election packages have been received out of 28,955 sent out for the Greater Geraldton election race — equivalent of 12.77 per cent.

In Carnarvon, 607 — or 18 per cent — election packages have been returned of the 3361 sent out. The rate in Chapman Valley is 16.29 per cent with 172 packages out of 1056 returned.

The rate of return is higher in Coorow, with 22.91 per cent of election packages, or 217 of 947, sent back.

The Exmouth election has to date seen 383 packages out of 1689 handed back so far, a rate of 22.68 per cent, while in Dandaragan 543 ballots of 2620 mailed out have been received.

There are less than three weeks to go until votes in the postal elections are counted after 6pm on Saturday, October 21.

As local government elections are not mandatory, voter turnout has been historically low. In previous election, the turnout in Greater Geraldton has been about 30 per cent, and slightly higher for mayoral elections.

The mayoral position is up for grabs in Greater Geraldton this time, but at roughly the halfway mark of the campaign the returned rate is tracking behind the historical average.

Voters in Greater Geraldton have four contenders for mayor — incumbent Shane Van Styn, deputy mayor Jerry Clune, FIFO worker Tammy Croasdale and anti-vaccine mandate protestor Aaron Horsman.

Sixteen candidates — one woman and 15 men — are battling it out for just four councillor spots available at this election.