On polling day I’ll be handing out how to vote (HTV) cards for the Greens. I’d encourage others who want to support the Greens to do the same, it’s not too late to volunteer, there’s always a need for more. I’d like to say a bit about why I do this, and my past experiences.

Firstly, I’d happily see HTVs banned. They don’t really serve any particularly useful purpose these days (apparently in the past ballots didn’t show party affiliations so HTVs were actually rather helpful), however as long as they are allowed then I will hand them out for the Greens since otherwise other parties (particularly the well resourced majors) get an additional advantage. Occasionally people accuse the Greens of hypocrisy on this issue, but as far as I’m concerned the Greens will achieve more by getting people elected to Parliament then unilaterally giving up HTVs and losing elections as a result. This isn’t a “win at all costs” mentality, just a matter of weighing up different factors. Ultimately a political party is about getting people elected to advance the parties policies, so helping out on polling day, the most important day for a political party, is one of the best things you can do. Before first volunteering I’d already been a Greens voter for a while but was frustrated at them not getting elected and felt that I had to do more.

So what is it like when you work at a polling booth? Even though I’d happily do away with it, I also quite enjoy it. It feels good to be taking an active part in democracy, and it’s good to witness up close how well our elections are run. The attitude of voters varies, the most common are probably the people who walk past without taking anything, or the people who take one of everything. It’s very rare for anyone to be rude to the volunteers, many people are friendly, and some even express appreciation for the fact that you are volunteering your time. I have always found there to be a good rapport between volunteers from various parties. People tend to not get into details political discussions, but just enjoy meeting up with other people who have a similar commitment and interest in politics. Regardless of ideology we all have in common that we are giving up our time because we care about what happens in elections. Quite a few volunteers are there because of personal connections with candidates as well, they’re not all hard core followers of politics and you can end up chatting about all sorts of things at quiet times.

At the practical level, all it really involves is handing out bits of paper. You’re not expected to be an expert on your party’s policies, or all the details of how preferences work or anything like that. If someone asks a question you can just answer as best as you can, and can always refer people to the polling officials for neutral advice.

Some people have ideas about the best strategy (be the first or the last to hand things out), but every polling booth has it’s own layout and voter numbers which determines how people will approach and where the volunteers might stand. I just observe for a while to get a feel for how it’s working and try to find a good spot where the maximum number of people who come in get to take one of my HTVs if they want one. I don’t like situations where the voters have to run a gauntlet of people handing out HTVs though some locations tend to inevitably lead to this sort of thing. You don’t want to be overbearing, but also you don’t want to be meekly standing at the back, basically try to find a position where the people who take one of everything are guaranteed to not miss out on yours, but also so the people who don’t want anything can get through easily without any hassles. Sometimes there’s a rush and you can’t offer one to everyone, I think that chasing after people is not a good idea but see it happen sometimes, you just have to accept that you might not give one to every person who comes through. The main thing is to be polite to everyone (voters, both on the way in and out, fellow volunteers regardless of who they are representing, and the polling officials), and enjoy helping your candidate do as well as they can. And go to the party afterwards too!

An Onymous Lefty has also posted on this topic.

There seems to be a number of people lately advocating an informal vote in the upcoming election, most famously Mark Latham on 60 Minutes (which should already be a giveaway that it might not be the most well-thought out position). The motivation  seems to be a disillusionment with both major parties, which I can understand, but even in that situation voting informal is simply a stupid waste.

In first case, I want to consider a particular subset of those talking about voting informal, which are the ones who I’ve seen make comments like “I’ll vote Green in the Senate and informal in the lower house”. This is really, really stupid. It shows a complete failure to comprehend the way our voting system works. If you dislike both major parties, but there is actually a party you do like it is lunacy not to vote for them. People seem to think that voting informally is going to make some grand statement that will make the majors take notice. Well it won’t, it will just look like one more idiot who can’t follow the instructions. Lets even take it to the extreme, suppose 50% of an electorate deliberately voted informally. One of the majors will still win based on the two party preferred vote of the other 50%. There is no allowance for the result not to count. Now consider on the otherhand if those 50% voted for other candidates. Would this not make the majors take notice since they would be in danger of actually losing their seats. Voting informally does not make a statement, it’s abstaining from saying anything at all. Voting for a party whose policies you believe in is making a statement. This means that one of your preferences has to go to one of the major parties – well so what? If you really don’t prefer one over the other then toss a coin. It’s still better than voting informally. The fact that your preference may end up with one of them does not make them any more likely to win the seat – they still will if you vote informal. The only way you change this is by building up other options. For example the people who voted for the Greens in Melbourne 2007 helped to put them in a winning position this time. If they do win it, then I think it will make it even easier for them to win more seats next time as people realise that iti is a very real possibility. Also as I’ve pointed out before, a vote for the Greens gives them public funding to allow them to build the party to the point that the majors can be seriously challenged, and also rather than a say nothing informal vote, a vote for the Greens actually does give the majors some idea of why you didn’t vote for them and can lead to a change in policy. All of this applies just a well if there is some other candidate other than the Greens who you prefer as well.The fact that you have to choose preferences for every other party is a good thing  – it actually reduces the power of the major parties as it allows for people to vote for other options without “wasting their vote”.

About the only case I can imagine where someone might make a serious case for an informal vote is if there is absolutely no candidate in their electorate that they like at all. In that case, I’d still advocate voting for them in order of least worst, but there’s more as well. We live in a democracy. If you don’t like the options then start your own party, run as a candidate, or if there’s a party you like but you don’t like some features or their particular candidate then join the party and get involved in policy development and preselection. There are lots of people getting out there and doing hours of unpaid volunteer work (and donating money) for parties and candidates who are unlikely to win at this election, but at least they are engaging in democracy and trying to build viable alternatives to the major parties. In some ways I have more respect for the person who puts in work for a party I strongly disagree with than the person who says “it’s hopeless, I’m voting informal” but has similar political leanings to me.

The ABC have set up an interactive election map, go see it here.

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In the first part, I pointed you in the direction of information about how the voting system works, but you were not yet able to find out exactly who you could vote for. Now all of the ballot papers are finalised so this post is about where you can get information on the candidates you can vote for.
All of the voting info is available at the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC),
in particular you can find out about the location of polling places, how to do pre-poll votes (you can vote earlier if busy on polling day) and information on the ballot papers for both houses. For ballot paper information I’d recommend the ABC as a better source as the information is set out a little better.

While the press largely focuses on who will be PM, there is much more to it than that. You will elect a local member and some state senators. Who your local member is will have an effect on who forms Government and hence who the PM is, but you need to weigh up various factors beyond just the personality of the PM – what do you think of your prospective local member, what do you think of their parties policies. The Senate is another matter again, many people do not necessarily vote for the same party in both houses. Be aware of the role of the Senate and consider your options. On top of that, remember that you are choosing preferences, not just one candidate, while your choice of number 1 is always important (in particular it determines public funding for candidates), your other preferences may also be important and require serious consideration. Below I address each of the two houses separately:

The House of Representatives

To see you HoR ballot paper you’ll need to know your electorate (do that here). Once you know your electorate then you can go here to Antony Green’s election guide and look at the details. In particular you can see all of the candidates for your electorate, the number of candidates varies between 3 and 11 depending on which one you’re in. There is some candidate info provided there, but not necessarily for all candidates. If you want to know about the other candidates you can try an internet search for them or their party (if they have one). Also look out for info in your letterbox, and watch out for any public forums that take place in your electorate. If you’re not sure of who to vote for then a public forum can be a great way to meet the candidates and here them speak. Keep an eye out in your local paper for any that are advertised. While you should be concerned about what the candidate is like as an individual, also keep in mind that if they represent a party then this will give a very strong indication of how they will vote in parliament so party policy is also important. You may have a candidate who you like as a person, but choose not to vote for them because you disagree with the party policy they are bound to support, or on the other hand you may vote for a candidate without knowing much about them personally just because you want to support their party. If you want to know more about a particular candidate try to contact them directly – the AEC has contact details for all candidates. Remember that you need to rank all candidates in order of preference, so it’s not enough to pick just your favourite, you need to have some idea of what you think of each one. Often this will just be a matter of what you think of their party, and in most cases there are only two likely winners, so you may not be too bothered about who the rest are.

The Senate

To find your candidates for the Senate you just need to know which state or territory you are in rather than a local electorate. Each state will elect 6 senators, and each territory elects 2. Once again Antony Green has the details. In particular note which Senators are continuing (and hence not up for re-election) so you’re not confused when you can’t vote for one you like, or put one you don’t like last. There is a list of all of the Senate candidates for your state and their party affiliations. You’ll see many more parties represented than in the lower house, so you may want to do some research to find out who they all are. Just as in the HoR, when voting you are giving preferences to all candidates, but in the Senate you have the option of an above the line vote, where you number just one party or grouping above the line, and your preferences are allocated according to the preference ticket they have submitted to the AEC. You can see all of the preference tickets here. These can give also give an idea of which parties are similar to others, but you do have to be careful inferring too much from these preferences as sometimes parties make deals which do not necessarily reflect their political philosophies. Who is preferenced last is probably a more reliable indicator than who is preferenced first.

If you want to allocate your own preferences below the line there are a couple of sites that help you plan this in advance (a better idea than trying to work it out on the spot), they are http://belowtheline.cc/ and https://www.belowtheline.org.au/. I strongly recommend reading Antony Green’s comments on these in this post as well.

If you want to gain a better understanding of how preference flows work then you can play around with Antony Green’s Senate Calculator.