Often your local school, church or community hall will be turned into a polling booth. You can use the Electoral Commission of Queensland website to find out where your closest one is.
It’s easiest to vote at a polling place in your own ward. If you go to a booth in another ward on election day, you’ll still be able to vote, but it’ll be an absent vote (so the process might take a bit longer).
When are polling booths open?
Polling day is Saturday, March 16, and booths are open from 8am to 6pm.
What if I’m busy on election day?
You can cast an early or pre-poll vote at Brisbane City Hall, in Adelaide Street, or in the returning office in your council ward.
- Bracken Ridge: Units 6-7, 41 Graham Road, Carseldine
- Calamvale: 2/115 Corymbia Place, Parkinson
- Central: 1/72 McLachlan Street, Fortitude Valley
- Chandler: Shop 1012, Westfield Carindale, 1151 Creek Rd, Carindale
- Coorparoo: 1/1129 Stanley Street East, Coorparoo
- Deagon: 43 Brighton Rd, Sandgate
- Doboy: 17/1029 Manly Road, Tingalpa
- Enoggera: Tenancy A, 65 Gilston Street, Keperra
- Forest Lake: 99 Kelliher Road, Richlands
- Hamilton: 5/34 Navigator Place, Hendra
- Holland Park: 28 Badminton Street, Mount Gravatt East
- Jamboree: 2/18 Sudbury Street, Darra
- McDowall: 51 Prospect Road, Gaythorne
- MacGregor: 11/2092 Logan Road, Upper Mount Gravatt
- Marchant: Units 2&4/77 Araluen Street, Kedron
- Moorooka: Units 5-8/200 Evans Road, Salisbury
- Morningside: 5&6/471 Lytton Road, Morningside
- Northgate: 301 St Vincents Road, Banyo
- Paddington: G-15 Mayneview Street, Milton
- Pullenvale: Bellbowrie Shopping Plaza Shop 1B & 1GB, 37 Birkin Road, Bellbowrie
- Runcorn: 361 Bradman Street, Acacia Ridge
- Tennyson: 167 Hyde Road, Yeronga
- The Gabba: 42 Manning Street, South Brisbane
- The Gap: Tenancy 1/20-30 Harry Street, Ashgrove
- Walter Taylor: Shop 1, 191 Moggill Road, Taringa
- Wynnum-Manly: 89 Tingal Road, Wynnum
Another option is to apply for a postal vote, but applications closed on Monday, March 4. If you meet strict eligibility criteria, there is also telephone voting. Find out more from the ECQ.
Why do I have two slips of paper to fill out?
One is for voting for the Lord Mayor of Brisbane City. Everyone in Brisbane gets to choose between the same candidates for this one. Whoever wins will become head of the council, and have control of the council administration and overall budget.
Your other ballot paper lets you vote for a councillor, who represents your ward. There are 26 wards in Brisbane. Your local councillor can decide how some money is spent in their wards. Councillors also sit on different committees, like transport, infrastructure, and city planning.
It’s possible that the Lord Mayor might come from a different party than the majority of councillors. This is what happened in the four years after the 2004 election, when Liberal Lord Mayor Campbell Newman ran Brisbane with a council dominated by the Labor Party.
Who should I vote for?
This is totally up to you. You can choose to follow a party’s how-to-vote card, or make your own decision on who to preference.
Do I have to number every box?
In the council election you do not have to number every box. You do have to choose one candidate to get your first preference vote – which you do by writing the number 1 in the box beside their name.
After that, it’s up to you whether you continue numbering the boxes to say who you’d like your vote to go to if your first preference doesn’t make it to the final two candidates. This is called optional preferential voting.
If you’re also voting in the Inala byelection, you do have to number every box on your ballot. That’s because state elections have compulsory preferential voting.
When will we know the winner?
Counting doesn’t start until polls close at 6pm. We’ll be live-blogging the results as they come in on the night, but we can’t promise when we’ll know the winner. Last time around, Schrinner declared victory on social media at 12:33am – so it might be a late night.