Queries
4 August 2010
I’ve added another view to the tool where you can perform queries on the registered group voting ticket information. Currently there are just two queries: ranking groups according to how high they preference a particular candidate (for someone you love), and ranking them according to how low they preference a particular candidate (for someone you hate). If you have any suggestions for other queries to add, let me know. The toolbar button which switched between the list and ballot views has now become a drop down, and that’s where you can find the queries.
11 August 2010, 4:04 pm
How do I know who these people are and what they stand for – particularly the ones not in a party?? Is there somewhere I can go to get info on this that you know of?
12 August 2010, 10:53 am
As for who they are, you can look up candidate information on the AEC’s website here. It lists each candidate’s occupation and contact details (address, phone number, email address).
As for what they stand for, I would just suggest searching the web for information published by them (perhaps they have a web page for themselves), and if you cannot find any information, send them an email asking about the issues you think are relevant.
15 August 2010, 6:20 pm
Cameron, this is brilliant. I’ve been voting below the line for years, on principle; I refuse to let anyone tell me how I should direct my preferences. But it takes ages, and there’s always the concern that I might get it wrong. Not to mention the fact that it’s hard to know what each candidate stands for when I’m looking at the form for the first time in the polling booth – especially so with the independent and ungrouped candidates. Your tool takes all the hassle out of it. I can sit at the computer, research the candidates, and work and rework my preferences to my heart’s content, and be confident that the end result will still be a formal vote. I love it. I will definitely use it again in future elections.
Anything similar planned for the Vic state election later this year? (I’ve forgotten – do the state upper houses have the same kind of above-the-line/below-the-line ballot paper that the Senate does?)
15 August 2010, 6:27 pm
Bonnie, yes for us in Victoria our upper house (legislative council) does use the same kind of ballot: see here. Time permitting, I will update the site for the Victorian election.
19 August 2010, 12:04 am
This is a superb contribution.
I have often wanted to vote my own preferences in the Senate, but it was more than a little daunting
and I guess like so many it became a “gunna do” that never got done.
Well, I have now printed out my own to take to the polling booth…in the same presentation rather than single page to avoid errors transcribing the numbers.
Basically, I short-circuited the research by taking the major party of preference Group Voting Ticket and re-arranged the order to place the Independents group after the party of choice group and then re-numbered the rest.
This accords with my own preference to increase the number of Independents in the Senate to keep them honest.
19 August 2010, 1:37 pm
Well done! This is something for the serious voter who wants to allocate his own preferences. One thing is missing and that would be hard to add: What do the ungrouped candidates stand for?
19 August 2010, 1:41 pm
Fred, yes it would take some effort to collate information on the views of the ungrouped and grouped-but-not-in-a-party candidates. At some level though I don’t want to bias people’s opinions by giving my own summary of what they stand for, so I leave it to users of the site to search for candidate information and to form their own views.
20 August 2010, 9:51 am
Cameron, I just want to say thanks for the fantastic tool you have given us. I have just printed out my how to vote card after weeks of fine tuning. For the first time my senate vote will be completely decided by me.
Cheers mate.
21 August 2010, 8:27 am
Can’t thank you enough for this tool. Makes it so much simpler to have it all there in front of me. Not to mention being able to take it with me when I vote-this way I know I won’t end up with two numbers the same.
21 August 2010, 9:13 am
I love the way the site has been designed, although the right-to-left sliding approach left me thinking for a moment.
I have voted below the line for years just to give longer employment to the tally room workers. Other than a couple of candidates I know about, the rest were purely random.
21 August 2010, 12:11 pm
Brilliant. For me, the real joy of voting is figuring out to whom I give my last preference! This makes it so easy.
21 August 2010, 1:20 pm
I wish I’d found this site earlier, (like not on election day). I used the good old spreadsheet a week ago. I thought the concept was absolutely brilliant and execution superb!
Lets hope it’s around for the next Fed election. I’ll defiantly be looking out for it.
Any chance of a Victorian State Election tool too?
21 August 2010, 2:45 pm
Brilliant concept for those of us who do not like the way most parties distribute their preferences. Both my wife and I used this to good (we hope) effect.