The position of each candidate on the ballot paper for a local council election is determined by a single computerised random draw. We do this random draw for each ward or unsubdivided council after the nominations period ends.
The ballot draw is a public event that anyone can attend, including candidates.
Melbourne City Council elections have different requirements and take place once team name and group registration have closed for a general election. The order of teams for the leadership team election is determined by a single computerised random draw. The order of candidates and groups in the councillor election is drawn randomly in 2 parts:
- the order of groups above the line
- the order of ungrouped candidates.
Our computerised draw software has been independently audited and certified. It includes a random number generator (RNG) which uses a cryptographically secure algorithm to produce a sequence of numbers that cannot be predicted.
The RNG has passed several statistical tests including:
- Empirical tests
- Diehard tests
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) tests.
View the software component that generates the random order for the ballot.
Download the audit report for the ballot draw software.
In the unlikely event we cannot hold the computerised ballot draw, we can do a manual ballot draw instead. This involves randomly drawing sequential numbered balls from a lottery barrel to determine each candidate’s position on the ballot paper.
