An article in the paper earlier this week talked about just how few votes it can take to get elected. It even discussed the 2 seats in the recent Unley election where candidates were elected unopposed. Generally there is a perception that people are elected unopposed because the electorate sees the incumbents as doing a good job and they see no need to change what is working well. The Advertiser did not afford them this honour. More to the point when there are multiple candidates it is possible to get elected with far less than a quota (if 2 to be elected, one third of the formal vote plus one). At the most recent election in Unley the lowest vote to get elected was just over 200 votes (Parkside). It seems in some councils people have been elected with as few as 11 votes. While this is almost certainly well under quota the individual may have had number 2 preferences from someone who had gone well over quota. The count works the same as the Senate and Legislative Council where some senators have been elected with 200 votes as well. It generally works well in local government.
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