OK, this pisses me off!

[gemini_liberal]

OK, for the upcoming state election, I have applied for a postal ballot because I'll be working on the day. Now, I got a form in the mail from my (Labor) MP and thought "what the hell, it beats going to the post office etc." I sent it off blah blah, and got a confirmation letter today with the usual propaganda and a how to vote form - which of course I expected them to send. Now I vote how I want but I looked at the suggestion. Naturally it had the guy at number 1, then at number 2... you guessed it! Family First. Now I can understand their desire to put the Liberal candidate last - as he is the biggest threat, but there is also a Green and a Democrat on the form - surely they deserve to be ranked above the extremist Family First!!!

These people do of course realise that if Family First got the balance of power in the lower house, not only would they force nasty laws through, but they'd probably give government to the Liberals, don't they? How could they possibly think they benefit? Grrr...

The other problem is, Labor is popular, and a lot of people will be voting for them above the line on the upper house form, which means by default FF are gonna get preference votes, as this probably means they got a similar deal for the upper house ballot...

[Matilda]

1. That is very disturbing.

It means that the Labor hierarchy still aren't listening to the grass roots of the Party.

FF have their seat in the Federal Senate thanks to dirty politics by Labor as well as the Coalition
in locking out the Greens, although they polled something like 1% of the primary vote i.e the
majority of Australians have no wish to see them in Parliament.

Labor shooting itself in the foot again - FF will almost always vote conservative, so what the hell
are they playing at?

[gemini_liberal]

2. ...

We already have 1 seat in our 22 seat upper house in Family First's hands until 2010, and it looks like they have a good chance to win one this time around, which means they'd have 2/22 seats until at least 2010 and a seat until at least 2014 - which is assuming they crash and burn over the next few years, which is unlikely.

Labor need to realise that the only way they can stop the Greens is by appealing to the Greens' base...

SA is a conservative state, I concede that, but this is just illogical. Especially when the party is led by a more progressive leader...

I dunno...

[PinkUnicorn]

3. Curious

Out of curiosity do people actually pay any attention to those 'How to Vote' sheets? Every election their just plain annoying when you show up to a polling station and get 20 tons of flyers shoved in ones face. Sadly I suspect a lot of voters get a government just like themselves (Oh, I forgot who I was voting for. Um, where did I put my car, do you take credit? Bloody muslims, etc), so its not surprising.

"Sorry, I did my research and made a decision before I came here. I'm not going to snap vote now"

As for the Assemblies of God (aka Family First) with the current trend to US style elections and the voting power religious conservatives have in a disinterested public arena, it was more or less inevitable that the bible thumpers sneak in and whore themselves out for their agenda.

As for it starting in SA, well SA has always been the butt for church jokes for a reason, and add Costello parading his religion, there would have been a quasi-fertile undercurrent for it, I just hope they go away before they breed and start spreading.

[gemini_liberal]

4. Idiots do

Some people actually believe the propaganda of "this is how you have to vote if you want an XYZ government!" Never underestimate the stupidity of the average person.

Yes, fundamentalists exist in any system, but we don't need the supposedly more progressive of the two major parties endorsing them in preferences.

[Djinn]

5. yes plenty do

I've been one of those annoying pamphleteers at the last 4 elections (vic state and Fed) for the Greens and you'd be surprised at how many people DO make up their minds on polling day. Some are most definetly in the "stupid" category, many others just want clarification on certain points that they didn't get from candidates or have questions on the election process itself (which we're not supposed to answer but the electoral comish staff seem utterly useless in this regard)

Other people have questions about how preferential voting works, elderly people and people for whom english is a second language often want to make sure they're numbering correctly - they alreay know their preferences but they sometimes can't read the ballot - of course I'd prefer it that they knew this stuff already but not everyone follows this stuff closely (or at all) and as we have compulsory voting (or compulsory turning up) I'd rather they have some info before voting than none at all

I've never seen any HTV volunteer, from any party hassling anyone (in my area the Libs are the most polite and unassuming, safest ALP seat in the country means they know their place!) and when I vote I simply walk past them and say "no thanks" it's not much of an imposition and other people find it useful

[Matilda]

6. I used to follow the How to Vote cards when I first started voting.

Simply because nobody bothered to tell me otherwise. I thought I had to do it a certain way or my
vote would be invalid. It took a couple of elections before I figured out I could make my own
choices.

[gemini_liberal]

7. Sorry

Didn't mean to imply you were an idiot! :(

[Matilda]

8. No offence taken!

But I wonder how many other young people make the same mistake if nobody explains it to them?

And of course, there are always people who don't want to bother thinking things through - lots of
them!

[gemini_liberal]

9. Well I remember my first election

I thought that's how you have to vote if you want that party to win the seat, but then I thought to myself how stupid it sounded. If there was only one way to vote, they'd just get you to check a box, so I asked about it, and they explained it to me. They also explained the difference between above the line and below the line voting - they essentially said that above the line, that party decides where your preferences go, and I have vowed never to vote above the line - regardless of how many candidates there are, because of that.

[Matilda]

10. Remember the "table-cloth" Senate voting form about ten years ago?

I ticked every damn box!

Counted them through twice to make sure I hadn't missed any.

[gemini_liberal]

11. I remember the 2002 state one

I remember sitting there thinking "is this one 53 or 54?" Apparently that was the second biggest upper house ballot in Australian electoral history - second only to the 1999 NSW one. I think the fact that so many people couldn't be bothered and just voted above the line was the reason FF snuck in.

[Matilda]

12. Of course, I was forgetting that only NSW had the table-cloth ballot.

It was a strain - I wanted to have my say, but you knew if you missed just one number, the vote is
invalid. And struggling to manage the paper in the tiny booth - it had its funny side.