I'm trying to vote properly this year
Aug. 3rd, 2010 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreAnd quickly finding out why most people DON'T vote properly.
For one, the ballot forms are confusing. I still don't exactly get how or why this trickle down/preferences voting thing works. What I have discovered is that if you vote "below the line" you'll be voting for who you want, not for whoever's in power that gets the preference of whoever you voted for... or something.
So I found a site where you can put everyone below the line in order of preference then get a handy print out form so you know which numbers to put where.
I'm currently trying to find that page, because the AEC page is gobbledegook to me. I want a list of all the people I can vote for (which varies depending on where in Australia you are), and I want to be able to SEE ALL THEIR POLICIES! Seems I'm going to have to Google each one. Try and remember what they all stand for and then figure out my order of preference from there.
It's not at all simple and it's no wonder most people don't do it.
Labor and Liberal do loads of advertising and get loads of media time so everyone knows their polices, and unfortunately tends to vote for either. The Greens get a bit of publicity and this year the Sex Party is getting some coverage too. Nutters like One Nation and Family First have been covered in the past so people know the basics of their policies.
But there are a stack more options that most people know NOTHING about. To me this seems like a serious flaw in the electoral process. There should be a website and/or a pamphlet that gets sent out, that summarises the policies of EVERYONE so EVERYONE can make a proper, informed decision on who they vote on.
But no, that's now how it works, so Labor or Liberal will get in and both are shit.
It's really no wonder I'm an anarchist.
For one, the ballot forms are confusing. I still don't exactly get how or why this trickle down/preferences voting thing works. What I have discovered is that if you vote "below the line" you'll be voting for who you want, not for whoever's in power that gets the preference of whoever you voted for... or something.
So I found a site where you can put everyone below the line in order of preference then get a handy print out form so you know which numbers to put where.
I'm currently trying to find that page, because the AEC page is gobbledegook to me. I want a list of all the people I can vote for (which varies depending on where in Australia you are), and I want to be able to SEE ALL THEIR POLICIES! Seems I'm going to have to Google each one. Try and remember what they all stand for and then figure out my order of preference from there.
It's not at all simple and it's no wonder most people don't do it.
Labor and Liberal do loads of advertising and get loads of media time so everyone knows their polices, and unfortunately tends to vote for either. The Greens get a bit of publicity and this year the Sex Party is getting some coverage too. Nutters like One Nation and Family First have been covered in the past so people know the basics of their policies.
But there are a stack more options that most people know NOTHING about. To me this seems like a serious flaw in the electoral process. There should be a website and/or a pamphlet that gets sent out, that summarises the policies of EVERYONE so EVERYONE can make a proper, informed decision on who they vote on.
But no, that's now how it works, so Labor or Liberal will get in and both are shit.
It's really no wonder I'm an anarchist.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-03 02:28 am (UTC)...also, http://bothkindsofpolitics.org/ may be of interest. Personally, I don't like the way they've gone about things, but they are a decently comprehensive repository of facts.
As for summarising things - I think it's in most papers, the morning of the election? Not so helpful for organising things in advance, but there's generally at least a little bit of detail in there.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-03 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-03 07:44 am (UTC)The short answer- because first past the post voting really sucks.
The slightly longer answer- The idea with preferential voting is that instead of the person who got the largest number of votes from people (eg if you had 10 people running could be as little as 11% of the vote), you have someone who the majority have more of a preference of (eg someone with 1,2,3 preferences of 51% of the people).
In the senate think of above the line as a easy way to copy a how to vote card- whichever box above you tick, that party have already submitted a list of below the line preferences, so it will be assumed your vote will be whatever they have said.
The AEC has lots of info about how votes are counted here:
http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/counting/hor_count.htm
http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/counting/senate_count.htm
The AEC also won't have information on policies, it's their job to run the election openly, fairly and legally. If they started talking about policies they could easily be accused of bias and some such and we wouldn't have a independent body running the election.
Am happy to answer questions too, given I used to teach this and am far more of an election nerd than I care to admit.
Antony Green does a fairly good election summary at the ABC site. Here is the WA senate information from there:
http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2010/guide/swa.htm
Scroll to the bottom and it tells you how the 55 candidates are for the WA senate. You have Greens, Nats, Libs, Citizens Electoral Council, Sex Party, Socialist Alliance, Climate Skeptics, DLP, Secular Party, Family First, One Nation, Australian Dem, ALP, Lib Dem, Christian Dem, Shooters & Fishers, Carers Alliance, Senator On-line and 5 different groups of independents.
Woah! I know three of them are new parties, the rest were around for at least the last election. For some of these groups if you start looking at their policy websites, you'll quickly see which ones stand for issues that are important to you and require further reading and which ones fall into the "nutter" category.
Anthony Green also has a "How to vote" summary and he will often cover information about policy on his blog.
http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2010/guide/howtovote.htm
I want a list of all the people I can vote for (which varies depending on where in Australia you are), and I want to be able to SEE ALL THEIR POLICIES! Seems I'm going to have to Google each one.
Any group that did this would be accused of bias and who would you propose fund the building of such a website? The smaller parties struggle to promote themselves as it is and the big parties already have the funds for their own advertising. Also that page will be huge if you want to see "all their polices", some parties (eg fishing, carers) are focused around one issue & don't have an official policy on many topics, other parties have quite indepth policy on most issues, which would dominate the page (have a look at the Greens website for example).
But there are a stack more options that most people know NOTHING about. To me this seems like a serious flaw in the electoral process. There should be a website and/or a pamphlet that gets sent out, that summarises the policies of EVERYONE so EVERYONE can make a proper, informed decision on who they vote on.
To be perfectly honest it is a civic duty to have an informed vote. Spending a few hours on google to make an informed decision, or even to spending time to look at policy leaflets when they are shoved into your mail box or thrust into your hand at the voting place, is not alot of effort to make an informed decision about who you vote for to run the country and to represent you. Your vote effects who runs the country for the next 3 years (or so). A few hours out of your time to find out more about it really isn't that much. Just remember there are alot of people who don't have the right to vote for who runs their country (and having lived in such a place- yes that is actually really, really important).
no subject
Date: 2010-08-03 07:55 am (UTC)First - I am a bit shocked about who I have voted for/given preference to in the past based on ignorance and the small amount I knew from media hype. Yikes.
And for some parties I'm reading and nodding and smiling and going "Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh I like you."
And some I read and immediately go, "OH HELL NO!"
Feels empowering, having knowledge and knowing that my vote will truly reflect my feelings this year.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-03 07:56 am (UTC)in no particular order
Date: 2010-08-03 08:02 am (UTC)Senator Online: http://senatoronline.org.au/sols-purpose
CEC: http://cecaust.com.au/main.asp?sub=policy&id=Mainpolicy.html
Christian Dem (Fred Nile Group): http://www.cdp.org.au/
DLP: http://www.dlp.org.au/index.php?page=alias
Climate Skeptics: http://climatesceptics.net/?page_id=1288
One Nation: http://onenationwa.asn.au/
Socialist Alliance: http://www.socialist-alliance.org/page.php?page=190
Carers Alliance: http://www.carers.org.au/
Greens: http://greens.org.au/policies
Libs: http://www.liberal.org.au/Policies.aspx
ALP: http://www.alp.org.au/agenda/
Lib Dem: http://www.ldp.org.au/
Sex Party: http://www.sexparty.org.au/index.php/policies
Shooter & Fishers: http://www.shootersandfishers.org.au/policies/
Family First: http://www.familyfirst.org.au/Policies.htm
Australian Dems: http://www.democrats.org.au/policies/
Nationals: http://www.nationals.org.au/Policy.aspx
That took me less than 15minutes to google. Hope it helps. I could give you my summary of policy but it would be really, really biased :P
no subject
Date: 2010-08-03 08:07 am (UTC)Media hype is annoying, and given anyone can throw together a political ad and get it approved (have you seen the anti Greens ad put together by some religious nutters? UGH!), often it will come down to who is doing the fanciest thing/throwing the biggest campaign stunts/striking the most fear about who gets reported. It would be nice to see the smaller parties get covered more by mainstream media and less hysteria.
Feels empowering, having knowledge and knowing that my vote will truly reflect my feelings this year.
And this is why having one of the best voting systems in the world is awesome.
Re: in no particular order
Date: 2010-08-03 02:37 pm (UTC)Thanks you so very much, and also for the very good explanatory comment above.
*applauds*
Re: in no particular order
Date: 2010-08-03 02:43 pm (UTC)It really took be about 15mins to find all of those sites and to get the list off who was running off the AEC site. I'm just miffed ACT voters (where I'm registered) don't have such and exciting list on their senate ballot :P
no subject
Date: 2010-08-03 08:41 pm (UTC)Not so at all. Obviously, nobody is asking the AEC to provide editorial content. They could easily ask for the policy information from the candidates and then it would all be in one useful place, instead of scattered all over the web.
Postal voters in the US get a big booklet with a half-page photo/information/bio/platform statement from every candidate they are voting for. This makes it vastly easier than making people go look up everything for themselves in 20 different places (and what about all the people who aren't on the net?!) because, honestly, that's a hurdle that most voters simply won't jump.