An average of 5.2% (800k votes) not counting - called “informal” in Australia (as it is here in New Zealand), you might also see “spoiled”.
However the question is, with 89.9% turnout and 5.2% spoil, are they still achieving better voter engagement overall than we did in NZ with 78.2% turnout but only 0.6% spoiled?
You could probably argue either way; as some people definitely wouldn’t consider showing up but voting for no-one, will they check a box at random (and does this benefit the first party in the list alphabetically?). I’m sure someone has written a paper on this.
The people have died is such a bad argument imo. If people died for the freedom to have abortions, that doesn’t mean a pregnant woman has to have an abortion. True freedom means that you can choose whether to vote or not to, and people definitely didn’t die to force everybody to vote, which just results in uninformed and non-caring people to vote for the first candidate that tells easy solutions to everything instead of admitting the complex reality.
If the way you vote is as simple as it is in the UK (bit of paper where literally write a X in the box next to the candidate you like with a pencil) you can literally just write ‘fuck the lot of you’ across the page.
In Australia this is a standard practice. It’s technically an “informal vote” or a “spoiled vote” but its colloquially known as Donkey Voting. The traditional method is to actually just draw a big dick on the paper, though.
And no one has been, or ever will be, fined for this. We don’t even, in practice, have compulsory voting. We have ‘Compulsory Turning Up To Your Opportunity To Vote’.
I’m just imagining trolling this. Doing a couple of the pubes slightly crossed kinda over one of the options so the candidates have to take time discussing whether they think it counts as a vote or not.
We have that in Canada too. It’s to prevent vote buying/intimidation. People would mark their ballot to prove they voted for the person they were supposed to.
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There’s an easier solution in place. Just don’t fill out the paperwork.
You are required to show up at a polling place, you aren’t required to put in a legitimate vote.
This I think is from their previous election: https://results.aec.gov.au/27966/Website/HouseInformalByState-27966.htm
An average of 5.2% (800k votes) not counting - called “informal” in Australia (as it is here in New Zealand), you might also see “spoiled”.
However the question is, with 89.9% turnout and 5.2% spoil, are they still achieving better voter engagement overall than we did in NZ with 78.2% turnout but only 0.6% spoiled?
You could probably argue either way; as some people definitely wouldn’t consider showing up but voting for no-one, will they check a box at random (and does this benefit the first party in the list alphabetically?). I’m sure someone has written a paper on this.
Ballot order is randomised at different polling stations to avoid the issue of the first name on the list having an advantage
The people have died is such a bad argument imo. If people died for the freedom to have abortions, that doesn’t mean a pregnant woman has to have an abortion. True freedom means that you can choose whether to vote or not to, and people definitely didn’t die to force everybody to vote, which just results in uninformed and non-caring people to vote for the first candidate that tells easy solutions to everything instead of admitting the complex reality.
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Abortion is just not analogous to voting.
We’re talking about laws so ‘true freedom’ is irrelevant in this context.
But mostly, compulsory voting doesn’t eliminate the freedom to not vote. Just go in and write bart simpson like a certain percent always do.
If the way you vote is as simple as it is in the UK (bit of paper where literally write a X in the box next to the candidate you like with a pencil) you can literally just write ‘fuck the lot of you’ across the page.
In Australia this is a standard practice. It’s technically an “informal vote” or a “spoiled vote” but its colloquially known as Donkey Voting. The traditional method is to actually just draw a big dick on the paper, though.
And no one has been, or ever will be, fined for this. We don’t even, in practice, have compulsory voting. We have ‘Compulsory Turning Up To Your Opportunity To Vote’.
I’m just imagining trolling this. Doing a couple of the pubes slightly crossed kinda over one of the options so the candidates have to take time discussing whether they think it counts as a vote or not.
Sadly, I think they go with “clear and unambiguous mark only” and “no other marks on the page”.
We have that in Canada too. It’s to prevent vote buying/intimidation. People would mark their ballot to prove they voted for the person they were supposed to.