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krazykitkatAll New South Welshpeoples, remember to vote tomorrow, Saturday. And if you're hungry, support your local primary school/other facility by buying a lamington or a sausage sizzle.
And remember at state election level we have optional preferential voting.
So for the lower house (Legislative Assembly), you can preference as many or as few candidates as you wish. If you only want to put 1, you can and your vote will go no further. If you want to number all the candidates, or just a few, you can. If you don't want to vote for either of the major parties, you don't have to (though if you don't preference the one you hate less, and the one you hate more gets in, don't complain).
And don't let the voting card handa-outers try to convince you that the voting card is the way preferences will be directed. You and only you choose. As soon as you don't number any more, your vote exhausts.
For the upper house (Legislative Council), you can again preference as many or as few as you want. BUT, it is also different to federal level in another way. A few years ago the NSW government banned preference deals between parties. Remember the nonsense where various parties horsetrade preferences and people end up in who really shouldn't based on their very low vote? That's been banned in NSW.
So if you vote 1 above the line for a party, that only implies preferences for the chosen group on the ballot. Your preferences won't end up with the save our purple people eaters party.
You have two choices in the upper house: above *or* below the line.
Below the line you have to vote for at least 15 candidates. You can vote for more than that, for 16 or 40 or 60 or the whole 333 of them. But number at least 1 to 15. There's a list of all candidates and groupings here.
According to an article on the ABC website by my political boyfriend, Antony Green (who knows how to pronounce Berowra - he corrected Maxine McKew at the last Federal election), most people do not understand the change that was made to above the line voting.
You can now vote for as many parties as desired using the group voting squares *above* the line. If you voted '1' Green and then '2' Democrat, your vote would be implied to be preferences for all the Green candidates, then for all the Democrat candidates. Your vote then goes no further. You can just vote 1 above the line, or number all the boxes above the line, or as many as you want. You choose.
Hope that makes some sort of sense.
And for voting tomorrow, you get rewarded with an extra hour of sleep tomorrow night.
And remember at state election level we have optional preferential voting.
So for the lower house (Legislative Assembly), you can preference as many or as few candidates as you wish. If you only want to put 1, you can and your vote will go no further. If you want to number all the candidates, or just a few, you can. If you don't want to vote for either of the major parties, you don't have to (though if you don't preference the one you hate less, and the one you hate more gets in, don't complain).
And don't let the voting card handa-outers try to convince you that the voting card is the way preferences will be directed. You and only you choose. As soon as you don't number any more, your vote exhausts.
For the upper house (Legislative Council), you can again preference as many or as few as you want. BUT, it is also different to federal level in another way. A few years ago the NSW government banned preference deals between parties. Remember the nonsense where various parties horsetrade preferences and people end up in who really shouldn't based on their very low vote? That's been banned in NSW.
So if you vote 1 above the line for a party, that only implies preferences for the chosen group on the ballot. Your preferences won't end up with the save our purple people eaters party.
You have two choices in the upper house: above *or* below the line.
Below the line you have to vote for at least 15 candidates. You can vote for more than that, for 16 or 40 or 60 or the whole 333 of them. But number at least 1 to 15. There's a list of all candidates and groupings here.
According to an article on the ABC website by my political boyfriend, Antony Green (who knows how to pronounce Berowra - he corrected Maxine McKew at the last Federal election), most people do not understand the change that was made to above the line voting.
You can now vote for as many parties as desired using the group voting squares *above* the line. If you voted '1' Green and then '2' Democrat, your vote would be implied to be preferences for all the Green candidates, then for all the Democrat candidates. Your vote then goes no further. You can just vote 1 above the line, or number all the boxes above the line, or as many as you want. You choose.
Hope that makes some sort of sense.
And for voting tomorrow, you get rewarded with an extra hour of sleep tomorrow night.
