Technology is a wonderful thing – when it’s working. One of the most common phrases uttered in an office when technology fails to work is: “turn it off and back on again”.
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While the person on the receiving end often groans, the fact remains that nine times out of 10 it works.
But not for the Tasmanian Electoral Commission on Tuesday night.
A great interest in the results appeared to have caused the TEC’s website to crash for about 90 minutes just moments before the first results were scheduled to appear.
Northern councils were also delayed receiving results due to delays in transport from Hobart.
When the results did start to roll in it the numbers told an interesting story.
Dorset Council was always going to be an interesting race between incumbent mayor Greg Howard and challenger Wendy McLennan.
Ms McLennan is well known as the community liason officer for the North-East Railway group.
The railway has been a divisive issue for Dorset and surrounds.
The railway group want to establish a heritage rail service, yet the council has plans to build a shared pathway.
After two reports contradicting each other, the state government stepped in this year to announce both options would be a given a chance – with a railway for part and the shared pathway as planned.
This didn’t please the railway supporters.
They want the opportunity to create a heritage trail that runs the full length of the line.
It was predicted that the Dorset Council mayoral race would be an indication as to where the community sat when it came to choosing which project to endorse.
With Councillor Howard returned as mayor on 64.07 per cent of the vote, it was a strong indication as to where people stood on the issue. The participation was also up for Dorset with an additional 6.25 per cent of people voting (overall 72.79 per cent) compared to 2014.
Dorset is a great example of the community engaging in debate.
