Voter Notes

Polling day Tickets and preferences I hope ticket voting is, or will be, a thing of the past (though I fear for Victoria in November, 2026). In ticket voting the parties may make deals between themselves and control how your vote's preferences are allocated. The parties encourage a simple and quick "1". They want you to leave the rest to them. Preferences are vital if no candidate for a lower house seat has over 50% of the valid votes. (Then the lowest scoring candidate's votes get to be transferred to the other candidates.) Parties hand out "how-to-vote" material. They tell you how to number your boxes. That is called allocating preferences. The parties may have made deals but you still decide. To number or not to number Is it hard to know how to fill the boxes? You might use the "how-to-vote" of the candidate you most do NOT want. (Never!) Then, just number in exactly the opposite order to their idea. They have helped you. (They end up with your ...

Things Electoral - a summary Anyway, here are answers to the questions you did not want to ask: This is not about which boxes you mark 1, 2, 3 etc., it is about marking boxes and being counted. The business of an electoral official is NEVER to tell you what to vote. The official’s business is to ensure you can vote. (I am no longer an official of any kind but I keep to that idea in my posts.)

Topnote added: Very puzzling news from ECSA. Can not imagine how their procedures have failed. It could not be due to the absence of the Commissioner. The system security does not depend on the top administrator/manager.