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passerkirbius · 1 day

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If you want, please tell us more about the ranking voting system in Australia

Have a good day :)

*cracks knuckles*

The exact workings of our voting system changes somewhat from state to state, but let's talk about the Federal Australian voting system first.

So, we have different voting systems for our two houses of parliament. We'll start with the Lower House since it's the simplest:

Lower House Voting

So, let's start with the House of Representatives (aka the Lower House). This part of our vote is a mandatory preferential vote - You must number every preference on your ballot, 1 to X, for it to be valid, where 1 is your highest preference. Here's a sample Lower house ballots all filled out:

When the ballots get counted, we use a system called "Instant Runoff", which basically means that all the votes get allocated according to first preference, then we eliminate the candidate with the least votes, and their vote gets redistributed according to the next valid preference, and this continues until one candidate gets the majority of votes.

It's important to stress here that this doesn't mean we distribute preferences until we're down to two candidates and then choose the winner, we knock candidates out until one party has more than 50% of the vote, even if distributing them further might change the allocation.

Upper House Voting

So, what about the Senate, AKA the Upper House? We also use preferential voting for Senate Voting, but it's significantly more complicated, because we're actually voting or multiple candidates (in a standard election 6 for each state and 12 in a "double-dissolution" election, for territories, it's always 2). Here's the basics of how it works:

Senate ballots are huge, and are divided into "above the line" (ATL) and "below the line" (BTL), and you get to pick one or the other. ATL is for parties, BTL is for candidates. You must number at least 6 boxes above the line, or at least 12 boxes below the line, and you can only choose one or the other (no jumping across the line!). Here's a sample ballot, the first filled above the line, the second below the line:

You'll note that there's an "Ungrouped" section that doesn't get a box above the line, and that's because the Senate voting system is almost entirely built around parties, not single Independents, so if you don't have a registered party, you're at a strong disadvantage in the Senate.

Before counting starts, ATL votes get converted to BTL votes via each Party's Group Ticket, that says how ATL votes should be translated. Your overall preferences get preserved though - a party's Group Ticket only affect party candidates.

Once the number of votes is known, the AEC establishes the "quota" of votes required to get elected (typically 1/6 of the state's total votes rounded down + 1 for half-senate elections, 1/12 for double-dissolution elections, and 1/2 for territories). Basically, any candidate that gets a number of "1" votes equal to the quota is elected.

Now, usually a candidate gets elected with *more* than a quota. Those votes aren't wasted, and they can go on to elect other candidates. But how do they know *which* votes didn't count towards the quota? How could they decide that fairly?

Well, they don't! Instead, they basically let *all* the votes through, but at a discount equal to the percentage of overflow votes over the quota. So, if I got 2 quotas worth of votes, I'm elected, and all those votes get redistributed to other candidates at 1/2 value. Then, if anyone else now *also* gets a quota, we repeat the process.

After everyone with a quota of votes is elected, the process works like the House vote, with the lowest candidates being excluded and their votes being distributed in full to the next preference. If there *isn't* a next preference on a ballot (because the voter didn't number every box ATL or BTL), it stops counting from there - it "exhausts" and has no further effect on the counting process.

Once someone else reaches quota, they're elected, and *their* overflow votes get redistributed at a discount. This keep going until either 6 candidates get elected, or the candidates remaining equal the number of seats remaining (basically they get elected by default).

How does this change from State to State?

The Federal process doesn't change state-to-state - we all vote using the same process there. But elections for State Governments aren't run federally - they're instead run by State Electoral Commissions, and each state is free to run their elections how they see fit. For the most part, states run their elections pretty similarly to the Federal Model (with each state splitting themselves into Upper House Regions, rather than there being little sub-states), with the following major exceptions:

Queensland doesn't have an Upper House, having abolished theirs in 1922.

Tasmania does things very weirdly - their Lower House voting system is very similar to the Federal Upper House system, and their Upper House voting system is much more akin to the Federal Lower House system

Victoria's Upper House system still uses the "Group Ticket" voting system, which still has an Above the Line and Below the Line distinction, but you only mark 1 box above the line, and that above-the-line vote gets converted into a full below the line vote based on what that party submits to the electoral commission. In short, voting Above the Line in Victorian State Elections means that you let that party decide your vote for you. This used to be how our Federal Elections worked too until about a decade or so ago.

How are your candidates chosen?

In Australia, each political party gets to choose how they choose their candidates. Microparties tend to choose by fiat (ie, the guy in charge decides who's on the ballot for which electorate), whereas major parties and larger minor parties tend to engage in "preselection", which is where members of the local electorate chapter of a political party vote on which candidate will represent their party for that electorate.

This might sound similar to an American Primary, but it's really important to stress that most Australians are not members of a political party, nor is there such thing as registering with a party. To put some numbers to it, in 2020 The Australian Labor Party (one of the two major parties) had 60,000 members, and the population of Australia was 25.65 million, so a very small number of people choose the candidates that Australia at large gets to vote for.

How long do your elections run for, and how often?

Federally, elections don't have a fixed date - a government can, in theory, call for an election at any time. In practice, there's some practical restrictions on election timings that tend to limit the exact window, but ultimately until an election is called, no one know for sure the date of the next Federal Election. In general, the time between the official writ to hold the election and the actual election date needs to be more than 33 days, and typically tends to be around 6-8 weeks all up.

This means that Election campaigns tend to be short and extremely concentrated - 6-8 weeks of election ads, policy announcements, controversies and meet-and-greets.

The frequency of Federal Elections tends to be roughly every three years, but as noted, that's very rough.

State Elections are completely different. I believe that with the exception of Tasmania, every State and Territory in Australia has moved to fixed election dates every four years (and Tasmania's Elections are still tightly fixed to a four-year cycle), and every State and Territory has a different fixed date.

What this means is that Federal and State (and Local!) Elections are entirely decoupled from each other - you never go to the ballot for more than one election.

Who runs our Elections?

Since 1984, our Federal elections have been run by the Australian Electoral Commission, which is a independent statutory agency. The AEC is funded by and ultimately answers to the Federal Parliament (not, it is worth noting, the Prime Minister, or any particular Government Department), but is operationally independent from the government of the day. The AEC decided Electoral Boundaries, manages electoral rolls, and is the body that managed party registration (ie the registration of political parties for inclusion on ballots). During Elections, generally an army of volunteers is engaged to do the work of manning election booths and count votes, and between Elections, the AEC mostly maintains the electoral roll and provides papers to the Parliament about ways to improve the electoral process. The AEC is really serious about this and does a lot of work advocating for accessibility in voting.

Among the various ways the AEC works to improve voting accessibility (because remember, not showing up to vote incurs a fine here) are:

Multilingual and Easy Read voting instructions so that everyone can learn for themselves how to vote.

Mobile Polling Stations that travel to remote towns and communities to ensure that even people thousands of kilometres away for the next town get a chance to vote. There are also Mobile Polling teams that go to Residential care facilities and hospitals to record the votes of those who can't get to election booths on the day.

Prison Polling teams, who go into Prisons to ensure those in Prison get a vote (and in case you were wondering: your electorate is the electorate of the place you lived in before going to prison not the electorate of your prison)

Early Voting, where people who know they won't be able to get to an booth on the day can go in and vote (some even still have sausage sizzles!)

Postal Voting, which is likely very similar to postal voting that you might have in the US

Phone Voting, a recent service introduced in 2013 originally designed to cater to blind voters. Blind voters had an issue in that all our votes are paper-based - not great if you can't see the ballot. They generally had to have someone come to the voting booth with them to help them fill out their ballot, which unfortunately breaks the secret ballot somewhat for these voters. So, a phone system was developed whereby a voter puts in a voter id and pin, then talks with an AEC assistant on the phone, who then records their vote onto a paper ballot and lodges it into a ballot box. Still not perfect, but the system ensures that blind voters can vote without anyone being able to know how they, specifically, voted. It ended up being used last election for people who'd caught COVID-19 and were under quarantine, so bonus there!

As mentioned above, each State has their own Electoral Commission, based broadly on the Federal Model, who generally run State and Local Elections within their State.

#australia #australian politics #voting

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passerkirbius · 2 days

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passerkirbius · 4 days

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Isn’t this that daft punk song

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passerkirbius · 4 days

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that's not how voting works here though... the whole entire point is exercising your right *not* to vote instead of feeling pressured to vote for one of two detestable awful people. picking one of them just to have someone to vote *against* does nothing but get votes for shitty people either way and will always be putting people at risk. when that is unavoidable either way why would we actively choose to be complicit in it?

Because not voting is also actively choosing to be complicit in it.

It might not feel that way. But the message you send to politicians when you don't vote isn't "I hate everyone", it's "I don't care who's in charge". It says to politicians that you've checked out - they can do whatever they want and you're not going to bother them anymore. You won't even vote against them! Zero consequences! A vote not taken is a voice ignored.

As I've said in another post here, not voting isn't an act of defiance, it's an act of submission. Even if you don't think the way I do, it doesn't change the fact that every vote, no matter who it's aimed at, fucks up at least one politician's day. Can't be helped. The only votes that don't are the ones that aren't cast. Even people in places that are far more corrupt than our nations tell you to vote - not because it'll change anything, not to make you feel better about the world, but because even when every person on the ballot is an utter bastard and they all work for the autocrat anyway, giving up means nothing can change. You vote like a spiteful bastard and make your politician's lives just that bit more difficult until someone turns up that can change things for the better.

So if you're fucking pissed at all your possible options and you can't stand a single fucking one of them? Then take your vote and shove in the most awkward, uncomfortable place for them. Show your anger. Use your vote to fuck up as many politician's days as possible. You can't do that if you choose not to vote. Voting for no one means your vote can't hurt a single one of them, and when you have such arseholes on the ballot, can you really not take the opportunity to fuck up their day?

#voting #if you can't be proud be petty #politics

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passerkirbius · 6 days

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ORC FACT

got your stupid ass. this is a gnome post. give me all the fucking berries right now

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passerkirbius · 6 days

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Hey guys just a heads up there's a new scam going around where a gnome will disguise itself with orc facts and then steal all your berries. Stay safe out there.

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passerkirbius · 6 days

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So, there's a lot of USians around who are very clearly fucking fed up with their political choices this election cycle, and planning to sit it out.

And I get it! What's the point of voting if there's no one to vote for?

The thing is, I'm Australian. In Australia, voting is compulsory. We don't get to sit out our elections, and I'll be real honest with you - we don't exactly get better choices than you lot. So how do you vote if there's no one to vote for? You find someone to vote against. And there's always someone to vote against.

Now, we have the pleasure of preferential voting in Australia - We get to rank every candidate from 1 to X, and I'll tell you, there's something so cathartic about putting the biggest bastard of the lot at the very bottom of your preferences. I understand that USians don't get that option - you get to mark one person, and that's it.

That means that you get one shot, so aim it at the biggest bastard of the lot. The candidate you most utterly detest. Put your vote in the worst possible place for them. Don't even think about who that vote's going towards, that's not the point. Remember, every vote is a vote against someone. Make sure you fuck up that someone's election day!

#us politics #voting #a really good addition to my original post

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passerkirbius · 6 days

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Re: your post Doing The Numbers 'obviously written by an American' omg ruuuuude. Also, idk, I'm suspicious of folks suggesting that there is no winning, that you can't make a difference with your vote

I can compassionately understand that there's a lot of despair in the air right now - there genuinely is something about living through a genocide that our politicians seem perfectly happy to let happen that really reinforces that sense of helplessness. And I can only imagine how much worse it is for BIPOC and trans folk who are watching what little progress they've achieved seem to melt away in the face of attack. I'm sure that it feels safer to reject the possibility of things getting better, so you can hunker down and defend yourself.

But there was a really good reblog from an Eastern European that weirdly made me pay attention - like, my right to vote has never been impaired, and my confidence in Australia's electoral machinery is very strong. In a lot of countries that isn't the case - your vote really doesn't count, and won't change anything. And you vote anyway - because even if they lie, even if they completely make up the numbers, they still count the votes, and they can see that you're still against them. They will know that you aren't silently complying with their agenda. You can still fuck up that politician's day.

I was already pulling out of a despair spiral before I read that post, but that post genuinely made me realise that yeah, I really was on to something there. If you don't speak up, someone else is going to decide you said whatever the hell they want, and I think I'd rather be the one talking, thanks. Even if your vote might not make much difference, it will still always fuck up a politician's day.

#voting #politics

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passerkirbius · 6 days

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Just because you disagree with me doesn't make me American (also? fucking RUDE). And sure, you can vote informal, plenty of people do (Although you still have to actively vote informal here, you can't just check out - you still gotta turn up and get your ballot even if you just draw dicks on it)

But a lot of people don't. A lot of people (like me) vote petty. But frankly, when you choose not to vote at all, it's not an act of defiance, it's an act of submission. It's a statement that you're willing to let your voice be decided by whoever's in power. When you choose not to actively vote against the bastards you let the politicians choose what they think you believe.

Honestly? I'd very much rather we have some politicians with fucking backbones in power, who might actually be willing to enforce some fucking consequences against genocidal regimes, but not voting doesn't improve the chances of that happening now, does it? All it can do is make you feel better about not supporting the government that still acts in your name to support genocidal regimes.

So I'd much rather encourage USians, who might otherwise check out of politics, to recognise that their vote has more than one consequence. I'd much rather have USians go out to vote ready to fuck up a politician's night, wanting to make a impact, than have an entire generation of folks completely check out and let their government do whatever the fuck it wants without even once being afraid of losing power. Fuck that.

So, there's a lot of USians around who are very clearly fucking fed up with their political choices this election cycle, and planning to sit it out.

And I get it! What's the point of voting if there's no one to vote for?

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passerkirbius · 7 days

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Is it weird that I want the holding cell flat? I wanna put my friends in there and give them puzzles to solve to be let out 🥰🫶

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passerkirbius · 7 days

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A Cruel Angel’s Thesis intro:

The rest of the song:

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passerkirbius · 8 days

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passerkirbius · 9 days

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passerkirbius · 9 days

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i understand the appeal of publishing “fic with the serial numbers filed off” as original work but i also feel like. what makes something a good fic is at odds with what makes something a good original story.

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passerkirbius · 9 days

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I was at a courthouse once, and saw an indigenous australian woman in a dressing gown very carefully and gingerly making her way down the steps outside the courthouse, surrounded by family who were helping her down the stairs. We asked if she was OK, because she looked awful. She looked like she should have been wrapped up in bed with blankets and hot soup, not on the steps of a courthouse.

One of her family told us that she had given birth yesterday evening, but that Child Protection services had taken her baby away with no warning, claiming that she wasnt prepared to look after him. What had happened, is that she'd literally only just given birth -- hadn't even passed the afterbirth yet, is holding her blood-coated, crying, newborn baby to her chest -- and a nurse asked what her feeding plan was. She was tired from the birth and distracted by the brand new baby in her arms and thrown off by the timing of the question, but still, she managed to answer, and said she planned to breastfeed him whenever he was hungry.

Well apparently that wasn't enough of a plan for the hospital staff, who reported her and claimed that she was unprepared to look after the child, and claimed that had no social supports, and that the baby was at risk if left with her. All because a brand new mother, 30 seconds after giving birth, didn't have a PowerPoint presentation ready to go that cited the timing cycle she would feed her kid on, and instead simply said that she would feed him when he was hungry.

Child Protection services showed up, took her kid, and she was told to show up to court the next day to contest custody if she wanted her baby back.

So a woman who had given birth less than 24 hours prior was forced to rally her family and show up to court to prove that she a) had a feeding plan for the child, and b) had enough social supports to justify reclaiming her baby.

It was one of the most appalling things I'd ever seen. I don't even know if she won her case. They didn't know at the time we saw them, and after that brief interaction on the stairs, i never saw them again. I sincerely hope she got her newborn baby back.

That was about 5 years ago. And the exact same kind of thing is still happening today.

News broke today from a South Australian whistle-blower of the appalling treatment new mothers frequently receive, including hospital staff taking the baby away from the mother "for medical tests," only for the mother to then be told, with absolutely no prior warning, that the baby was not going to be returned to her.

Here's the article, and here are some excerpts:

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