I always vote below the line and I always encourage others to do the same. At the very least, you should check the way the preferences are being distributed by the party of your choice if you are voting above the line and ensure you are happy with that.
I caused a few people to rethink their vote above the line for the Democrats when I drew their attention to the fact that party was preferencing CDP and Family First ahead of the Greens. All the information you need is on the AEC web site. You can see the list of candidates and group preference flows for the Senate. I always make my decision before going to the booth so that even voting below the line on 78 candidates it only takes a couple of minutes on the day. Cheers, Jonathan "Judy Redman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >In NSW there were 78 candidates standing, and I agree that it requires >more thought and attention than simply putting a 1 above the line, >but... > >Bruce and I wanted to know beforehand how the parties would distribute >their preferences and he found the information on the ABC website, so we >knew that voting above the line wasn't going to get our preferences >distributed where we wanted them and we went to the polling booths >knowing that we were going to vote below the line and having worked out >more or less how we were going to do it, so it only took a few minutes >more on the day than voting above the line and we know that our >preferences were not distributed to parties whose policies we don't >support. Synod voting is a different thing because they don't close >nominations until you're at the meeting, so you have far less time to >work out who you want to vote for and there is far less information >available about the people you don't know, as well. > >As an aside, I was at a meeting of the international student's >association the day after the election and many of them were fascinated >by the Australian preferential voting system and the fact that we get to >have a say in who gets elected if the person we prefer doesn't get the >most votes. Many of them come from countries where the system is 'first >past the post' and they seem to think that our system is better. > >Judy > >-- >"Politics is the work we do to keep the world safe for our spirituality" >- Judith Plaskow > >Rev Judy Redman >Uniting Church Chaplain >University of New England >Armidale 2351 >ph: +61 2 6773 3739 >fax: +61 2 6773 3749 >web: http://www.une.edu.au/campus/chaplaincy/uniting/ >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Maynard >> Sent: Wednesday, 13 October 2004 9:01 AM >> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Subject: RE: How party preferences picked Family First >> >> >> At 08:08 AM 13-10-04 +1000, Judy Redman wrote: >> >[cut] >> > > STEP 5 And now the big one. ALP eliminated. And it turns out that >> > > Labor too would prefer Family First to win the seat than >> the Greens. >> > > Family First 436,500 >> > > Greens 234,697 >> > > Only one in 10 of these voters actually voted for Family >> > > First. But the >> > > other parties voted for it, and that - and above all, Labor's >> > > choice - >> > > decided the seat. >> > >> >Which is why it is worth the time and effort to vote below >> the line - >> >after all, it only takes a couple of minutes more to >> influence who is >> >going to be in power for three years. >> > >> >Judy >> >> True, true. Though mind you, there were 55 candidates >> fielded across 17 >> parties in the State of Victoria, plus ten non-affiliated candidates. >> >> The Liberal Party's "How to Vote" card was the only one in >> Victoria which >> pointed out their Senate preferences for those who wished to >> vote below the >> line, or to see how their preferences would go if they voted >> in the Libs as >> Number 1. >> >> We have preferential balloting at the Vic-Tas Synod for >> members of Standing >> Committee and other commitees; believe me, it takes much >> longer than just a >> couple of minutes. >> >> With 55 candidates fielding for Senate positions in Victoria, >> I think most >> people think to themselves (why bother?), especially if just >> one mistake >> would invalidate their ballot. >> >> John M. >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> John Maynard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) >> PO Box 600, Cowes VIC 3922 Australia >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------ >> - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in >> the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) >> See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm >> ------------------------------------------------------ >> > >------------------------------------------------------ >- You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] >- To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe >insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) >See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm >------------------------------------------------------ > __________________________________________________________________ Switch to Netscape Internet Service. 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