PEOPLE who failed to vote in last October's council elections are being asked to explain themselves.
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The Victorian Electoral Commission is sending out 350,000 notices to people who appear not to have voted.
The notices are not a fine but do give people 28 days to give a detailed explanation of what happened, electoral commissioner Warwick Gately said.
"This is a question that must be asked of those who appear not to have voted," he said.
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People could be fined $83 if they do not respond or fail to provide a sufficient reason for not voting within 28 days.
Turnout in many central Victorian council areas neared record-highs in 2020.
In Bendigo, 91,891 people - or 82.9 per cent of the electorate - voted.
That figure includes envelopes returned to senders, people who had been excused from voting for one reason or another, as well as some who were interstate or overseas.
The figure does not include the 929 votes that were counted as "informal" because they were not filled out correctly.
The VEC is not releasing a council-by-council breakdown of how many show-cause notices it is sending out over the coming days.
However, it says that statewide, it will mail about 40 per cent less than after the last general council elections in 2016.
