Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] More PG stuff

Jeff McLean jeffm at jeack.com.au
Mon May 3 05:25:24 MDT 2004


ah, that's interesting.  thanks for that clarification.

of course i must also make mention that there is one way to thwart the 
system.  i have heard since that it has been made illegal, but i can't 
clarify this.

a few years ago, we had a political prisoner, albert someone-or-other, 
who advocated a method of voting, which is legally allowable as a vote, 
but illegal to promote or mention.  (woohoo, i'm breaking the 
lawwwwwwwwwwwwww...)  he sung "1,2,3,3, tweedly-dum and tweedly-dee" as 
he was being led away.

in my 6 candidate example, if you (as i do) don't want to see the major 
parties benefit from your vote, and more-to-the-point don't want them 
ever to use your vote, you can vote in the following fashion.  
1,2,3,4,4,4. 

this is (or certainly was up to a couple of years ago) a valid vote.

of course, once they get to your paper and have do distribute to 
preference 4 (if it gets that far) then they have to toss out the paper, 
even though your ballot could have been used to benefit your choices 1,2 
and 3.

can fellow aussies please clarify for me whether this is illegal, and if 
this ballot would now be cast as informal from the beginning?

here endeth the second lesson (after teacher has been taught one himself...)

Jeff and Jane Scott wrote:

>>From: Jeff McLean
>>
>>when you vote, to make the card valid, you must vote your
>>preference for
>>all candidates, numbering them 1 to 6.  if you don't do this,
>>your vote
>>is invalid - it's a donkey vote.
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>well, to be pedantic, a "donkey vote" is when you just number the
>candidates 1,2,3,4,5,6 from top to bottom.  still a valid vote, but
>generally associated with someone who hasn't bothered to consider the
>candidates, just written the numbers to get the whole process over with.
>OF course, it is possible that the "donkey vote" does reflect your
>actual preferences.
>
>
>jeff...
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