Oz Election Thread #4 - Gillard's Labor

Me, too!
And yesterday, too.
Very discerning forum, this!



That's interesting. I hope they do do better, Eorl.
The trouble is, if there are a squillion senate candidates to vote for (as usual) people tend to choose the "party preference" option. So much easier & fewer "mistakes" made that way.
I wish we had the option of voting only for the candidates we actually support & didn't have to number all those damn boxes.

Really?
The ABC did that?
Nothing like feeling connected to the rest of the country!
That's appalling!

Voted in London today.
Australia house (the consulate) is an imposing, awe inspiring, grandiose edifice, a ballroom sized foyer with marble staircases, columns and crystal chandleiers. There were even minions handing out how to vote cards, security guards searched all bags and metal detectors were in place.
Cant say i've ever been searched when voting before.
Julia made the front pages here a day or so ago with her qeeen to be the last foriegn head of state comments.

Oh no no no! Numbering all the boxes is the fun bit. It's very last number is so much fun. It's a bit like voting someone off the island. But who to choose? When you have a racist, a baptist, and a nazi to choose from? It's a special moment for me

I usually start with my least prefrred candiates. Fred Nile often figures prominantly. then move to my most preferred and kinda work my way into the middle from both ends.

Yes, you certainly could do that, dp.
Problem is, if there are many, many candidates it is quite possible to make "mistakes", yes? And then your vote becomes invalid as a result.

In any case, it certainly felt good to wake up today with such a massive election.

So you actually enjoy spending half an hour in the polling booth, Eorl?

Ha!

Found a great site called www.belowtheline.org.au which let's you sort it all out and then let's you print it in correct order. Then you just transfer across. Having small kids in tow adds a level of difficulty though.

I was timed out, trying to access that thread, Eorl.
I'll have another go in a minute.

Remember your post about the "legality" of Mark Latham's urgings that disenchanted voters vote informal as a protest? I mentioned the gaoling of Albert Langer (in Melbourne). He advocated that people vote one for the candidate that they actually supported & two for all the rest. Because the system we have gives way too much power to party preferences via "above the line" voting. (ie the preferred party preference.) I think I agree with him. Heck, that's how we ended up with Steve Fielding (Family First) in the senate, by endorsing the ALP's "above the line" option. He was voted in on Labor Party (& also Liberal) preferences. The number of (no 1) votes he directly received was actually minuscule.

(I bit the bullet ) ... and just read today's AGE editorial. Thankfully, no endorsement of a particular party. (Don't you hate that?!) More a call for voters to demand electoral reform.

Here's how I see this election. I'm with Bruce Petty. (cartoonist)

OK, I'm off now. My democratic duty calls! :

Apparently four independents have said they'll act as one in a hung parliament (Katter, Windsor, two others I can't remember) three of those four are ex Nats -but Alweed Ali (?) lecturer at Monash(?) on ABC 24 said that they are more likely to help the ALP form a govt in a hung parliament, in the interests of stability.

I'm always so happy when I number the last box and it's the same as the total given on the instructions. 60 on the QLD senate ballot.

One Nation or Family First last? Tough.

just checking in

reading about your voting protocol

I don't think I'm smart enough to vote in Australia

Perhaps I'm not, either, Beth. Especially when (like hinge) I was confronted with no less that 60 choices for the senate!

So, OK, I copped out. And followed the Greens' "above the line" voting advice . Otherwise I could have been stuck in that booth for hours & hours!

5: 52 pm now. 8 minutes before the polls close in est locations.

I arrived later than I'd planned to. Had to join a very long snake line of waiting voters. It took 30 minutes to shuffle (very slowly) to the polling booth. But that's OK.

You know, as old and as cynical as I've gotten about politics & policians, election days in the "Peoples Republic of Moreland" (as we affectionately call it) never fails to move me, put a lump in my throat. In the que along with me were people from every nationality you could think of. People speaking all varieties of languages. Muslims, Italians, Greeks, etc, etc, etc .. and their children & also some with their dogs in toe. And we were all there to exercise our democratic rights. People from a number of the countries which have no such rights. Or have had to fight tooth & nail to gain them. I always get a wee bit gobsmacked thinking about that. At moments like this I am so grateful to be part of this terrific community.

6:07 pm

The polls are now closed here.

Now the waiting.

<gulp>

I have no idea who can or can't receive this .. but here's the ABC's live election coverage:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/

Results coming in. Expected swing is happening. Looks pretty big. Maybe 5 to 7 percent to coalition?