State election candidate resources

Candidate resources

It’s important for anyone who wants to be a candidate to know how key election processes work. The candidate handbook has about:

how elections work
how to nominate
what happens in the voting and counting periods.

We’ll publish updated 2026 state election handbooks shortly.

To help you prepare to nominate, you can read the handbooks from recent state by-elections and the 2022 region election handbook. These handbooks were correct at the time of publication and should be used for information only as changes may occur.

*Recent changes to the Electoral Act 2002 mean our handbooks are under review. Some content may be out of date. We’ll publish updated versions reflecting the changes soon.

2026 state election handbooks

The 2026 state election candidate handbooks are your source of truth during all stages of the election.

This handbook has detailed information on how to nominate, guidelines for how-to-vote cards (HTVCs), funding and political donation requirements, and more.

We recommend you download and familiarise yourself with the content of the candidate handbooks.

We’ll publish the candidate kit and scrutineer handbook on this page.

You can also pick up a hard copy of any of these documents at an election office from Wednesday 4 November.

State by-election candidate resources

You can refer to handbooks from past elections to see what kind of information they provide.

Please note there have been changes to legislation since these were written, and some information may be out of date.

2022 state election handbooks

The following handbooks were available for prospective candidates in the 2022 state election.

Campaigner handbook

We’re introducing a new campaigner handbook for the 2026 state election to help campaigners and those supporting candidates outside voting centres in their important roles.

Please check back in September for a copy of the campaigner handbook.