It costs $250k for a council election

According to your March 1 article, $134,316 worth of infringement notice have been issued to those who failed to vote (for whatever reasons) at last year’s South Gippsland Shire Council elections.

Of more interest to me is the estimated $250,000, mentioned in the article, the Victorian Electoral Commission charges us to conduct the election.
The VEC and/or Australia Post stuff-up of the multiple ballot mailout possibly affected the election results and now are we to pay the additional postal and administration costs this involved?

In the interests of openness and transparency, will our council and the VEC give answers as to why these costs are so high, a breakdown of the costs, answer questions about the costs associated with the “stuff-up” and why do we even have the VEC involved? Well, will they?

Hey, I voted, but why should anyone who didn’t be expected to pay $91 for not doing so?

Steve Finlay, Leongatha.