Council elections

You must enrol and vote if you:

• are 18 years or older
• are an Australian citizen
• have lived at your address in the Port Phillip Council for longer than one month.

Check your state-enrolment details on the VEC website: Enrolment | Victorian Electoral Commission (vec.vic.gov.au)

Some ratepayers can apply to become council-enrolled voters in Port Phillip Council if they are:

• a property owner, occupier or represent a corporation
• 18 or older
• not a State-enrolled voter within the Port Phillip Council area.

These are known as council-enrolled voters. The rules for council-enrolled voters have changed ahead of the 2024 council elections. These changes are explained below. You can also find this on the VEC website  Enrolling for local council elections | Victorian Electoral Commission (vec.vic.gov.au)

Owner ratepayers

You can apply to enrol in Port Phillip Council if you:

• own property and pay rates in the council area
• are 18 or older
• are not a state-enrolled voter who lives in Port Phillip Council.

This includes:

• Australian citizens who own a property in Port Phillip Council but do not live in the area (for example an investment or a holiday home)
• non-citizens over 18 who own a property and live in Port Phillip Council.

Up to 2 ratepayers can apply to enrol per property, but each person only gets one vote.

Occupier ratepayers

You can apply to enrol in Port Phillip Council if you:

• pay rates for a property that you occupy but do not own
• are 18 or older
• are not a state-enrolled voter.

Note that council may request proof
of occupancy and liability for council rates.

Up to 2 people per property can apply to enrol, but each person only gets one vote.

Corporations

You can apply to enrol to vote on behalf of a corporation if you:

• are a director or company secretary of a corporation that pays rates (either as an owner or an occupier) in the council area
• have consented to being appointed as the corporation’s representative
• are not already a state-enrolled voter or council-enrolled voter for the same council.

Only one person can apply to enrol as the corporation’s representative.

If you meet any of the above criteria for Council-enrolled voters, you can complete the appropriate application form below.

Enrol online

• Owner ratepayer - application for enrolment
• Occupier ratepayer - application for enrolment

Enrol by post or in-person

Download and complete the appropriate form below and return it to us.  

• Owner Ratepayer Application for Enrolment (PDF 65KB)
• Occupier Ratepayer Application for Enrolment (PDF 171 KB)
• Corporation Owner or Occupier Appointment of Voting Representative (PDF 71 KB)

All sections of the form must be complete in order for the form to be accepted.  

Forms MUST be signed in person and cannot have a typed name. 

Signed forms must be returned to Council before 4pm Wednesday 7 August the day the roll closes.  

There are a number of ways you can return the completed form to us: 

• post it to us addressed to: The City of Port Phillip, Private Bag No3, St Kilda Vic 3182
• drop it to us in-person at St Kilda Town Hall, ASSIST Service Counter, 99a Carlisle Street, St Kilda during business hours

Once you are enrolled, you must vote for the October 2024 elections and onwards. If you don’t vote, you will be fined by the Victorian Electoral Commission.

If you speak a language other than English, you can download information on how to enrol to vote for the upcoming local council elections.

The VEC have created videos in the following languages:

•  Arabic
•  Mandarin
•  Vietnamese
•  Cantonese

Visit How to Enrol for more languages.

The VEC will automatically post a ballot pack to all enrolled voters on the City of Port Phillip Voters' Roll from Monday 7 October 2024.

Completed ballot papers must be posted or dropped off at the VEC’s Port Phillip election office (in the envelope provided with the ballot papers) before 6 pm on Friday 25 October 2024.

Local mail collection times differ. Check the collection time on your post box to make sure your vote is in the mail on time.

Please do not send them to Council or lodge them at Council’s customer service counters.

This means that if you are enrolled to vote, in council elections then you must vote. Failure to vote will attract a penalty.  The non-voter enforcement program is managed by the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC).

For further information about the election including compulsory voting, fines and reviews, please contact the Victorian Electoral Commission by phoning 131 832 or view the VEC website.

Council-enrolments for occupiers and corporations expire before the next local government general election. If you want to continue to vote, you must apply to enrol again before the next local council election (2028). We will send you an invitation when it is time to renew your enrolment. 

Owner ratepayers’ enrolment does not expire, but you can apply to resign your enrolment.

If you are a Council-enrolled voter and you don’t want to vote for that property anymore, you can apply to resign your enrolment by contacting us on phone 03 9209 6777.

If you believe that having your address shown on a voters’ roll could put your personal safety or your family's safety at risk, you can apply to be a silent voter.  

This means that you are still required to vote, but the address where you live is not shown on the voters' roll. 

As a State-enrolled voter, contact the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) regarding enrolling as a silent voter. If you are already a silent voter on the state electoral roll, you will automatically be made a silent voter on the council voters' roll if the VEC can identify and match your records. 

As a council-enrolled voter, you can complete a silent voter application directly with us.  

Download the form: Silent voter request (PDF 60KB)

All sections of the form along with a signed statutory declaration must be completed in order for the form to be considered.  

Forms MUST be signed in person and cannot have a typed name. 

Signed forms must be returned to Council before 4pm Wednesday 7 August the day the roll closes.  

There are a number of ways you can return the completed form to us: 

• post it to us addressed to: The City of Port Phillip, Private Bag No3, St Kilda Vic 3182
• drop it to us in-person at St Kilda Town Hall, ASSIST Service Counter, 99a Carlisle Street, St Kilda during business hours

We’re moving to a single member ward structure for the 2024 elections. This means we move from having three wards with three councillors per ward, to nine wards with one councillor per ward. At the 2024 election, Port Phillip’s voters will be asked to elect nine Councillors from nine separate wards across the municipality. These ward boundaries have been designed to ensure that each ward contains approximately the same number of voters.  Find out more about the Port Phillip electoral structure review on the VEC website.

The new ward names are: 

• Albert Park Ward
• Alma Ward
• Balaclava Ward
• Elwood Ward
• Lakeside Ward
• Montague Ward
• Port Melbourne Ward
• South Melbourne Ward
• St Kilda Ward

Enter your address into Near me to see which ward you will be located in for the 2024 election. 

 In a council by-election, people vote to elect a new councillor.

A by-election may be held if:

• a councillor resigns or cannot complete their term in a single-councillor ward; or
• there are more than six months before the next general council election.

If you enrolled for the local council elections in 2024, you will remain enrolled for any council by-elections up until 2028. It will be compulsory for you to vote. 

The Election Period (commonly known as Caretaker Period) is the period starting from the last day that nominations to be a candidate for a Council election can be received and ends at 6 pm on election day. During this period, Council business is conducted in accordance with the Election Period Policy (PDF 339 KB) to avoid the use of public resources in a way that may unduly affect the election result, and to minimise Councils making certain types of decisions that may unduly limit the decision-making ability of the incoming Council. 

The Election Period Policy ensures that all general elections of the City of Port Phillip are conducted in a manner that is ethical, fair and equitable and are publicly perceived as such. 

The last general election for the City of Port Phillip was held on 24 October 2020 and the VEC declared the results on Friday 6 November 2020. Elected Councillors were sworn in at a Special Council Meeting held on 11 November 2020. 

To view the 2020 election results for the City of Port Phillip on the VEC website.

Election campaign donation returns

The Local Government Act 2020 requires all candidates who nominate in council elections to submit an election campaign donation return to the Chief Executive Officer within 40 days after election day. 

The election campaign donation return must detail any gifts, goods or services worth $500 or more received during the donation period for use in connection with their election campaign. This applies to all candidates, whether elected or not, and whether they received campaign donations or not.

A summary of all election campaign donation returns is required to be made available on our website until the close of the roll for the next general election. 
Summary of 2020 election campaign donation returns (PDF 78 KB)