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The Forum > General Discussion > How To Vote - Informal

How To Vote - Informal

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Back to the topic.

I've worked on several elections as an electoral officer and last time around as a supervisor at the count of a nearby electoral division.

You shouldn't assume that the idea of voting 1 and leaving everything else blank is a protest vote. The process is that all votes are initially scanned for legitimacy. That is the vote is checked that all boxes are filled. So if, for example, there are 5 candidates, all five boxes have to be filled 1 through 5. If not, the vote immediately goes into an informal pile. If you vote [1] Greens and then level the rest blank, the vote doesn't ever get allocated to the Greens. No one cares who the vote was for....its informal and that's all that matters.

There are no official figures about where informal votes appeared to be for. So its not a protest vote, its a non-vote.

Additionally, remember that most candidates get some reimbursement from the treasury for each vote they get. Each ELIGIBLE vote earns the party about $2.80. An informal vote is not counted in this.

So voting as Paul suggested in the opening post would actually penalise the Greens, which I personally think is a good thing but probably isn't Paul's aim.
Posted by mhaze, Monday, 18 October 2021 8:40:04 AM
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BTW: The Liberals should dump the Nationals.
Many Liberal supporters that I've spoken to
recently are talking about withdrawing their
support after this latest head-butting. Barnaby
Joyce is looking really awful and imagine having
him ad Deputy PM? Get rid of the Nats!
Posted by Foxy, Monday, 18 October 2021 8:43:00 AM
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Dear mhaze,

Thanks for that. It should give voters something to
think about. I've never voted informally - I believe
in making my vote count. But those that are tempted
really should re-consider.
Posted by Foxy, Monday, 18 October 2021 9:03:38 AM
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Dear Mhaze,

«There are no official figures about where informal votes appeared to be for.»

Right, no OFFICIAL figures of course, but there ARE figures, even if no human counts them, God sees to the heart!

I don't vote informal myself, but it can be a painful moral dilemma to think later on that "it was me who brought that evil person to power", even if you consider them to be the lesser evil, it was your hand which held the pen or pencil which brought on their ascent.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Monday, 18 October 2021 9:42:41 AM
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We'd have better Govt & better public services if Public Servants weren't allowed to vote !
Posted by individual, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 9:51:15 PM
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Hi Yuyutsu,

Generally with a high informal vote the Labor vote is down. In England non compulsory voting conducted on a working day also impacts the Labour vote there, as does wet weather, and they have a lot of that. In the US non compulsory voting favours the Republicans. Australia introduced compulsory voting in 1924, the 1922 vote was at around 70%. Australia is one of the few countries that enforces compulsory voting. They say the big winner in American Presidential elections is the bloke no one votes for.

Hi Indy,

Do you also favour aged welfare folk being denied the vote. Yep, they'll be to busy digging ditches, and mending roads in our Seniors National Service, to worry about voting, remember our (new) motto; "TOTE THAT BARGE, LIFE THAT PALE" while you sing 'Old Man River' how inspiring, remember "Work sets you free".
Posted by Paul1405, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 5:56:07 AM
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