Quick Hit: How I'll Be Voting 2010

[thorfinn]

I'm in Higgins: http://www.aec.gov.au/election/vic/higgins.htm

We appear to have a Greens house of reps candidate, so my $2.31 worth of primary vote will be heading to them. Then in order, Independent I.T. Nerd, Blind Young Labor Guy, Liberal Ms I'm Not Costello Honestly, and Family First Goes Last.

For the Victorian Senate, I started with the Australian Sex Party ticket, and played with it until it made me happy... ;-) So my ticket looks like:

https://www.belowtheline.org.au/editor.html#vic-GFEDC76543fhjlnokmTSRpqVUabcQPvwxYXON0ZMJLK21BWAzydegirstuIH

Thus, my $2.31 primary senate vote goes to the Australian Sex Party - who are standing up against pretty much everything that I consider very wrong with what's going on in Australian Politics.

The rest of the ticket is scattered around issues parties, and preference flow will no doubt primarily wind up landing on Labor in the middle of my ticket. I've put Conroy towards the bottom of the ticket, but not last.

The switch-over point on my ticket (where I go from numbering in group ticket order because I'm "for", instead of numbering upside down because I'm "against") is at the Lib/Nat coalition ticket, starting at number 36.

Pretty much everyone below that point, including the Lib/Nat coalition, are mostly religious nut cases of one stripe or another that wish to do things that are bad for me and my friends. I have absolutely nothing against religious people, but the groups in politics are truly nut cases who wish to do harm to me and my friends.

Comments

[greylock]

Interesting. I wasn't going to do the switchover this year, I figure there's not a lot of point when it gets down to it, but I probably should go back through mine and bias it a bit.

Personally, I'd have voted the Climate Sceptics lower because they are certifiable. I have no idea how far down the ticket votes tend to go anyway. I'd be surprised if it was more than one-third.
I wonder if I can find out.

I wish I'd known I could use the link from BTL. I just printed out how to vote advisories.

[thorfinn]

I figure that preferential voting is all about voting against (as well as for), and if I'm going to vote against, I'm going to do it properly. :-)

Senate preference flow is actually quite complicated, because of the multi-person election. See: http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/counting/senate_count.htm

Essentially your ticket preference flow can potentially go quite deep on your ticket, because until your ticket has been used enough times to elect all candidates, it's not finished yet. It all depends on how you lay out your preferences, and where the candidates that get in are on your ticket.

The Climate Sceptics are crazy for sure, but for me, the religious nutcases are more likely to have a direct and immediate impact on the lives of me and my friends. Climate is important, that's for sure, but it's an issue that I think the major political parties are heading towards actually doing something about, whereas the religious nutcase thing is actually starting to infect the majors rather badly.

I've got the PDF on my Dropbox.com so I can view it from my iPhone. :-)

[greylock]

Being as I will probably vote Greens in all top three spots, I'm not too worried about how far down by preferences will flow. Once they hit Labor they're pretty much dead in the water.

The Climate Sceptics are crazy for sure, but for me, the religious nutcases are more likely to have a direct and immediate impact on the lives of me and my friends

Have you looked into the Climate Sceptics, or just looked at their name? Some of them are Moon Landing Fake/birther/truther types.
Personally, I'd trust the CEC or One Nation over them.

[thorfinn]

Oh, it's totally not about trust. :-) I think they're certifiable nut-cases, worse than the religious nuts, that's for sure. I just think that they will have less impact than the religious nuts.

The religious nuts have serious traction in the major parties - they basically control the Lib/Nats already, and they've got a bloody strong following in the Labor party.

Climate though, is starting to be an issue the majors are actually looking at properly, not just hand-waving about.

As for preference flow, I'm not sure how many senators are up for election in WA, but in VIC there are more than are on the Labor and Liberal ticket, so I expect preference flow to go very deep on my ticket. Especially so since I've put Conroy from Labor pretty far down...

[greylock]

I just think that they will have less impact than the religious nuts.

Oh, I'm with you now. Hrm. I may need to rethink my lower orders.


As for preference flow, I'm not sure how many senators are up for election in WA,

Six, same as usual:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_federal_election,_2010#Senate_terms_expiring

Three Libs (will probably get back in), two Labor (one I've never heard of) and one Green (high profile, moderate Rachel Siewert).

[thorfinn]

I think the short story is that predicting where your preference will actually flow and make a difference is well nigh impossible, so the correct strategy is to number positively where you are voting for, and number negatively where you are voting against.

The idea is simply to express your preference, so that the counting works, and that voting order does it best.