The task ahead of me....

I attended the council meeting in Mitchell today to give myself an insight into the meeting procedure of this particular council. I was made to feel most welcome and was treated in courteous and polite manner by all concerned. It also gave me the opportunity to meet with some of the other candidates and to discuss issues that may come up in the campaign.

Also during the day, I sorted out more campaign flyers and posters so I can start in getting some of these up. I’m still undecided about coreflutes, they are an excellent medium for getting your name out, but they are so hellishingly expensive!!!

Tonight I came home and sorted out my email contact list to start sending out campaign updates. I’m thinking of sending out some of the info that goes in some of my blog posts as an email to my mailing list. I now have over 100 people on my email list and I am hoping that this will become a valuable source of information.

Tonight I have sat down to look strategically at the list of candidates and tried to start and work out their strengths and weaknesses. It is now that the task ahead of me becomes apparent.

There are 16 candidates, from which we must elect 8 councillors. There are 8240 voters on the roll for the Maranoa Regional council, each voter gets 8 votes therefore the total vote pool is 65920 votes (assuming every eligible voter votes) if everyone where to get an equal amount of votes, the target quota of votes is 4120 votes.

This is unlikely to happen as there is always a “Favourite” candidate who polls well in excess of the borderline number, but it is also true that there is often also an “Unpopular” candidate who fails to get any votes at all.

In reality, I will have to acquire somewhere around 3500 to 4000 votes to be successful in obtaining a seat at the table. The task starts now...