At the Local Government NSW (LGNSW) conference in December, GSC put forward a motion to shorten the council election early voting period from two weeks to one.

Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey said shortening the pre-poll period would help negate the costs of running an election.

“The current regulation states that the pre-poll period must be held for the two weeks leading up to election day,” Cr Chaffey said.

“We have put the motion forward to reduce pre-poll to a one-week period because we believe the costs associated with running an election is significant for NSW councils.”

Cr Chaffey said shortening the pre-poll period would “not disadvantage residents” and would allow more interested parties the chance to run for council.

“A shorter pre-polling period would also allow for candidates that may have full-time employment more opportunity to man the stations, as well as open candidacy up to more people who previously may not have stood for election due to time constraints,” he said.

“Our proposal would not disadvantage residents, as the two-week postal voting period would remain the same.

“We feel that this motion would encourage more people to stand and would allow candidates to be the face of their campaigns and discuss with the community their ideas and issues in a shorter period.”

Councillor Ann Luke put the motion together on behalf of council  and said a shorter pre-poll period could lead to a more diverse range of councilors.

“Everybody keeps saying we need more business people on council,” Cr Luke said.

“But to take two weeks away from a business to campaign to be on council is very costly.

“Shortening the pre-poll period will allow more people the opportunity to run for council.”

Cr Luke said campaigning can take a toll on a candidate.

“Campaigning does take a toll,” she said.

"Not only financially but personally it can wear you out as well and the longer a campaign goes the more difficult it becomes.”

LGNSW will now take the successful motion to the NSW Government.