IN Mansfield Shire, where nine candidates are vying for five council seats, a team of scrutineers has been working steadily in the Shire Election Office, carefully opening envelopes and counting votes since the polls closed.

After sorting through thousands of ballots, they’ve provided a progressive count.

So far 5819 eligible ballots have been counted.

The current first preference leaders are James Tehan (1,505), Steve Rabie (1,164), Mandy Treasure (757), Bonnie Clark (665), and Tim Berenyi (585), followed by Michael Whytcross (438), Nick Cooper (269), Kammy Cordner Hunt (235), and Rohan Webb (201).

This is a progressive count, so the vote tally is ongoing and subject to change as more votes and preferences are counted - the latter in particular potentially playing a big part in the final outcome, which might look different to what the first preference tally currently reflects.

Under the proportional voting system, each candidate must reach a quota to be elected.

Approximating current figures of both formal votes counted and the shire's turnout rate percentage, and using the VEC's proportional counting formula, that figure can be estimated at around 1090 votes, meaning both James Tehan and Steve Rabie have this requirement already, meaning preferences will play a role in deciding the remaining three spots.

Surplus votes for candidates exceeding the quota are allocated to their preferences, while candidates with the fewest votes are progressively excluded and their preferences redistributed until the remaining three positions meet the required quotas.

This process means the initial first-preference tally may not guarantee the final outcome.

While the count as of October 31 provides insight into the direction of the election, a substantial number of votes remain to be counted.

The counted ballots so far represent the first of two batches for the 2024 Mansfield Shire Council election.

The initial batch, which is the larger, includes 6420 ballots received at the election office before the 6pm deadline on October 25.

Of these 6420 votes, 601 have been classified as informal, meaning the ballot was either not completed or filled out incorrectly, and therefore will not count toward the final result.

The second batch, yet to be counted, includes ballots that were still in transit at the close of the deadline.

This second group of ballots will be received at the election office by Friday, November 1, at the latest, after which it will be tallied.

Following the completion of both batches and the final tally, results will be considered preliminary.

All outcomes remain provisional until the official declaration ceremonies, at which point Mansfield Shire will formally announce its new council of five councillors from the nine nominated candidates.