Gday All, Allan wrote: > Perhaps I am getting old, but I a am sure that I remember voting not > so long ago when we had the option of voting below line but numbering > the actual parties rather than doing it individually. This to me makes > sense if people don't wont to go the whole hog and number every > candidate. Does anyone else have these recollections or am I having a > seniors moment?
No you are probably remembering correctly - the last NSW election allowed voters to number more than one box above the line and so put each grouping in a desired order without having to do a full below-the-line vote. No doubt some voters were confused by the inconsistency and numbered more boxes above the line - these were still regarded as formal but only the first preference is used (and that party's preferences thereafter.) I agree that this is a good idea, but I can imagine Howard would be dubious on it giving voters too much power - at present most people think twice about attempting a below-the-line vote, so the major parties can count on almost all preferences going where they want them. And the present system does make counting and the distribution of preferences much simpler - probably only 2-3% of votes are below-the-line. [As an aside, in NSW elections, the upper house votes are not all counted beyond first preference - a sample of only about 20% is used to determine preference flows.] One innovation I have thought of regards the Democrats who have two preference flows and share their preferences equally between labour and coalition (usually after some other parties.) While this seems even-handed, many Democrat voters prefer one or other of the major parties, and don't want half their vote to go to the other. So my idea was that voters could put, say, an A above the line for one preference flow and a B for the other - 1, x or tick would still result in shared preferences. Kind regards, Lindsay Brash. ------------------------------------------------------ - 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 ------------------------------------------------------
