From Monday October 3, all Tasmanians of voting age will receive a ballot pack in their mailbox for local government elections.
Unlike any time before, voting is now compulsory, just as it is in state and federal elections.
Now South Australia and Western Australia are the only two states where voting is not compulsory.
"We want to lift the community's engagement with the local government sector, and I am confident the passing of this legislation will do that," Local Government Minister Nic Street said when he announced the change in June.
"By making voting compulsory, we will lift community's perception of local government and its importance by bringing local council elections into line with state and federal elections."
That raises many questions, especially for those who have never previously cast a vote.
The ABC spoke to the Tasmanian Electoral Commissioner Andrew Hawkey about how it's going to work.
When do I need to vote and how do I?
Eligible voters should received a ballot pack in the mail by Friday, October 7.
"It will contain an instruction booklet, a candidate statement and a photo for those who provided them and a ballot paper for councillors," Mr Hawkey said.
Of Tasmania's 29 municipalities, 25 also have mayoral ballots and 28 have deputy mayoral ballots. If they apply to you, those ballots will be in your pack too.
The names on the ballot paper itself are rotated, so yours might not look identical to your neighbour's.
To make your vote count, you must number at least five boxes on a councillor ballot and at least one on a mayor or deputy mayor ballot.
"You only have to put five, but we'd like you to put as many preferences as you can because that makes for a better Hare-Clark count," Mr Hawkey said.
The count will use the same Hare-Clark system of preferential voting that is used in Tasmanian state elections.
If you're a King Island resident, it's a little different for you.
"They didn't have enough candidates to fill all positions when nominations closed so the first eight are all re-elected automatically, then we advertised a second round of nominations for the remaining ninth position, so you only have to fill in one box on that ballot."
There's another slight difference for City of Hobart voters, who will also have an elector poll in their ballot pack.
If you don't receive a ballot pack, they can be collected from your local council building from October 10.
You have until 2pm on Tuesday, October 25 to get your vote in, either mailed back or hand-delivered to council.
"If you've still got it in your hand on the Monday, it's best to drop it into council because it must be in the hands of a returning officer or council officer by 2 pm," Mr Hawkey said.
If you don't vote, the TEC will send you a letter asking for a reasonable explanation for why. If you can't provide that, you may be fined.
Can I vote in person or on the phone?
No, and you cannot email either.
"Because these are elections are run under the Local Government Act and not the Electoral Act, there are different rules," he said.
"It's a universal postal vote only."
If you're travelling around Australia or staying at a different address to the one on the electoral roll during the voting period, call the TEC.
"We'll then send one out to you wherever you are," Mr Hawkey said.
It's a bit more complicated if you're overseas though — you can still request a ballot be sent to you, but it might not happen in time.
"Since COVID some countries have still suspended their postal voting processes and in some cases it's a lot slower," he said.
"Being overseas is a valid and sufficient reason for not voting in Tasmanian parliamentary elections and I suspect it would be just the same for a local government election."
Who do I vote for?
That's completely up to you, but if you need information to help you make your decision the ballot pack may help.
Each candidate was offered the chance to detail in a booklet what they stand for in 600 characters and include a photo.
While it's unlikely you have missed the many roadside corflutes, there's only been a slight increase in the number of candidates compared to the 2018 election.
"Last time we had 505, this time we have 510 candidates," Mr Hawkey said.
Depending on where you live, your ballot will differ in size.
"We have 44 candidates standing in Hobart, 25 in the Huon Valley, 27 in Clarence and Central Coast, so some of them are quite big fields," Mr Hawkey said.
When will results come in?
The cut-off used to be 10am but that has moved to four hours later so the results will take a bit longer to come through than you're used to.
All the ballots from every municipality have to be delivered to the closest of two TEC offices — Launceston or Hobart — after the 2pm cut-off on October 25.
"So that first Tuesday we'll be getting them all in, pulling them all out of the envelopes, separating the mayor and deputy mayor ballots," Mr Hawkey said.
"Where we previously had some preliminary numbers on the Tuesday night, they'll be none this time, so results will trickle in on the Wednesday."
There is extra staff on hand, but given there's expected to be a 50-per-cent increase in ballots to count, Mr Hawkey said results would take longer to filter through than in the past.
Mayor and deputy mayor ballots will be hand-counted from first thing Wednesday morning and results will be announced as they're determined throughout the day.
You can expect a partial provisional result for councillors on Wednesday too, but that may change as the count continues.
"We've calculated our officers will have to put in 31 million individual keystrokes for the data entry for those ballots, so it's quite a big task," Mr Hawkey said.
