Early Access. Peninsula Votes may change in response to user feedback. Candidate announcements are not an official VEC ballot. Any VEC figures or ABC assessments will be attributed and labelled separately.

Editorial transparency

Methodology and sources

Peninsula Votes identifies the source and status of candidate information, election figures, projections and declarations so that unlike information is not presented as equivalent.

Primary sources

Election data and local reporting

Official electoral source

Victorian Electoral Commission

The VEC is the primary official source for candidate nominations, ballot order, election-night figures, historical election results and declarations.

VEC 2026 state election

Editorial source

STPL News

STPL News reporting is used for local candidate announcements, interviews, questionnaire responses and electorate reporting. Editorial reporting does not determine official nomination or result status.

STPL News election reporting

Attributed assessment

ABC Elections

An ABC projection or call may be shown only with clear ABC attribution, a source link and an update time. It remains separate from VEC figures and declarations.

ABC Elections

Candidate verification

Before and after nominations close

Before nominations close, Peninsula Votes may list an incumbent or a person whose candidacy has been supported by an official party announcement, an official candidate announcement, direct confirmation or verified STPL News reporting. These records are labelled as announced, preselected or incumbent and are not described as official VEC nominees.

After nominations close, the public candidate field changes only after the official VEC list has been checked. Confirmed nominees may then use VEC names and ballot order. Withdrawals and people who are not nominated retain a clear record status rather than being silently converted into confirmed candidates.

Candidate biographies, priorities, questionnaire responses, photographs and campaign links are published only when source information is available. Missing information is identified with a neutral status.

Historical and election-night data

VEC-first results

Historical district and voting-booth tables reproduce completed VEC results and link to the relevant official source. Historical information is kept separate from the 2026 count.

During election counting, Peninsula Votes can publish manually verified VEC updates while an automated feed is unavailable. Each update records its VEC source and source time. A failed or incomplete update does not replace the last verified public figures.

Election-night results may progress from first preferences to a two-candidate-preferred count, preference distribution and final figures. The displayed phase is identified so that preliminary and completed figures are not confused.

Result language

Four classifications, never merged

Counting

VEC figures are being progressively updated. No winner has been called.

Leading

The candidate currently has the highest displayed total. This is not a prediction or declaration.

ABC projected

An ABC projection or call, attributed to ABC and displayed separately from official VEC information.

VEC declared

The official VEC declaration. This is the only classification representing an official election result.

Manual verification

Timestamps, checks and corrections

Candidate records show the most recent recorded verification date and public source links where available.
Candidate fields show when their supporting sources were last checked.
Election-night figures display the source update time in Melbourne time where operationally useful.
Manual changes are reviewed against the cited source before publication.
Corrections preserve the previous result snapshot rather than silently rewriting the public history.

Factual corrections can be submitted through the Peninsula Votes feedback form. STPL News reviews the supplied source and updates the record where warranted.

Commercial separation

Editorial independence and sponsorship

Commercial partners do not influence candidate inclusion, editorial coverage, election calculations, ABC attribution or VEC classifications. Political parties, candidates and organisations directly associated with political campaigns are not eligible to become commercial partners.

Partner recognition is labelled as commercial and visually separated from candidate information, reporting and election results.