How on earth do we find out about Local Election candidates in the middle of COVID

Wearing masks is a pain in the neck. Or the face actually.

And as someone with asthma I find it particularly difficult to wear one for any period of time without ending up short of breath, which is why I take my hat off to those who are doing things in our community that require them to wear one.

And that leads us to the question of how on earth local election candidates are going to effectively campaign over the next two months in the middle of what is a difficult time for pretty much all of us.

Because local council elections are being held 4th September in NSW in case you didn’t know. You can be forgiven for having missed that given everything else that’s going on. It was meant to be last year, but they were rescheduled for obvious reasons.

COVID’s a time that recommends, or requires depending on lockdown progression, that we minimise personal interaction. You know, things like going down to the pub or club, visiting friends and family, attending community social events and the like.

Which in the “olden days”, well pre COVID at least, was how we asked the people we trust what they thought of so and so. It was how we asked for a “reference” check on a bloke or lady of interest who had decided to throw their hat in the ring to perform in the local circus of council politics to provide some amusement to us all.

For those who really cared about politics there was the opportunity to attend public events like “meet the candidates”.

But how’s that going to work now?

You want me to think about what?

This is a time where most of us don’t really have the attention span to deal with more ‘stuff’.

Many businesses and employees in our region are experiencing severe hardship as a consequence of circumstances.

What hope have ‘new’ candidates got of making a name for themselves in times like these?

That’s something that could lead to an unfair advantage to the current incumbents if not addressed, because when it comes to ballot day the names that we are familiar with are going to stand out.

Cancel the election again?

I don’t want to suggest in any form that we cancel the election. Not again.

It has already been delayed and I think I can safely say that some of those who have chosen to serve for the last three plus one year are ready to hand over the reins to some new faces so they can get back to their lives.

So what can we do?

Given all that, there is at least one thing we can do to help candidates. And that’s to find out who is running.

You can do that at the NSW election website where there is a list of those who have gone to the trouble of registering their names:

[Quick Tip: you can put your council name into the Council Area and Ward search box to filter the list to show just our candidates ]

https://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/Funding-and-disclosure/public-register-and-lists/Register-of-Candidates/NSW-LGE21-Register-of-Candidates

Virtual Campaigning

This campaign is going to require candidates to get good at virtual campaigning.

They’re going to need to use social media, video streaming websites, blog websites and virtual meeting tools to reach us.

And of course, online newspapers like this.

But how’s that going to work for everyone? Who’s going to help the ‘not so technical’ to access that information?
Well, that of course would be you my dear reader.

You could give your friends and family a hand with the various platforms they will need to be using to find out about the candidates, because we’ve never had a campaign like this and it’s going to be new for everyone.

If you know someone who is running, tell us about them, give them a reference – online.

Because democracy only works if we make informed choices.

So stay tuned as we put together further information on how to “meet the candidates” virtually.

Harry Longworth

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