Saturday tweaks

I made a few tweaks to the site today in response to some comments:

  • narrowed the width of paragraphs to make the introductory text a bit more readable
  • added a hint pointing out that you can begin with a party’s registered preferences by switching to the Ballot view first
  • ensured that the toolbar still shows at the top of the page when you scroll down
  • added an option to scroll the preferenced and unpreferenced candidates separately in the List view
  • tweaked the single page PDF output to include a shortened name of each group, and any initials to disambiguate people in the same group with the same family name

Let me know if you have any problems!


Fifteen comments

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  1. Great, thanks, just what I wanted.

  2. Thanks! I was just about to prioritise all of the Victorian candidates in a spreadsheet! I think this may be easier! :) Especially as I can get a starting point by loading The Wikileaks Party preferences first! :)

  3. My son put me on your site, because he could hear my despair at wanting to vote below line and worried about getting it wrong.
    It’s been a fantastic help, thank you so much

  4. Are you aware of a not so common voting method for the Senate whereby you can number all your preferences to say 25 & then rank the rest equal by putting 26 in all the other boxes. I remember it was promoted as a way of killing off your vote from being preferences in the lower house & subsequently the rules we’re changed, however I believe it’s still valid for a Senate ticket.

    Cheers for your help

  5. Cameron McCormack
    4 September 2013, 9:04 am

    I’m not sure about that. The last time I looked it up, you needed to make sure that 90% of the boxes below the line were filled in, and that you had at most three (I think?) numbering errors. Filling in a large number of 26s will probably make your vote invalid.

  6. Thank you for all of the work that must have gone into setting up this site.
    I now have a ballot that I am reasonably happy with.
    Bring on optional preferential voting in the senate.

  7. “Not sure where to start? You can begin with a party’s registered preferences by switching to Ballot view, clicking a “1” above the line, then switching back to List view to reorder them.”

    I’ve spent a long time trying to figure out how to switch to ‘ballot view’ … How do I do this????

  8. Cameron McCormack
    6 September 2013, 10:49 am

    Kerrie, you can click the “List View” drop down and select “Ballot View” from there. I’ll update the hint to make that clearer, thanks!

  9. Great help, thanks very much

  10. The AEC site says every box must be numbered for a below the line method: http://www.aec.gov.au/voting/How_to_vote/Voting_Senate.htm

  11. Cameron McCormack
    7 September 2013, 11:24 am

    Yes I wouldn’t recommend anyone deliberately leave off any numbers below the line. The Electoral Act does define how mistakes are handled:

    http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cea1918233/s270.html

  12. I just want to say thanks for this great site. My husband and I were going to vote above the line because it looked too difficult otherwise. With this site we easily compiled a list we were happy with (after starting with an above the line option) and printed the compact one pager. I am sorry I only discovered it today. I will tell everyone about it for the next election.

  13. What a wonderful help – thank you so much. I’ve been voting below the line for the last several elections but your method is EXCELLENT!I discovered it about 1am on Saturday morning!

  14. What a wonderful help – thank you so much. I’ve been voting below the line for the last several elections but your method is EXCELLENT! I discovered it about 1am on Saturday morning! Sharing it with friends.

  15. Fantastic site – thanks very much! I was working at a polling booth on election day and it was so nice to vote below the line without taking the entirety of my lunch break! And, in case you were wondering, yes it was a complete PITA to sort and count the senate ballot papers but great to be part of the process nonetheless!