It is a sad state of affairs that has led me to vote against the only party that I have ever supported. And long-term readers of this blog, as well as my friends and associates would be aware of the reasons for that decision. I am hoping that things will improve in coming months and years so that I can return to supporting them.
Let me explain how I voted.
I confess that much of it had more to do with emotion and retribution rather than good political strategy. My apologies to the AEC staff who have to count the convoluted votes of crazy citizens like myself. I've done it once before and it is a bit of a nightmare.
I have always advocated voting below the line for the Senate. That means numbering every box (in WA that means all 40 candidates). This year I decided to take a tip from Crikey and a couple of other sources by using my first preference as a hip-pocket protest.
Rather than vote for a candidate or party that was likely to attract at least 4% of the vote (and thus attract substantial public funding of $1.92 per vote) I sent my first preference to candidate number 40, Jim Jardine (The Great Australians). That in itself has saved the tax payer just under $2 and made my vote enjoyable (at least in my bitter mind). And, yes, it WAS a wasted vote from a tally perspective - but who cares. Move on to the next prteferences.
My second to seventh preferences went to the two ungrouped independents, the unnamed Group A candidates, Citizens Electoral Council and Liberals for Forests. Call it a charitable gesture on my part. :-)
To be fair, openly gay Democrats Senator and long-time rights activist, Brian Greig, received my ninth preference ahead of Rachel Seiwart (Greens), who received my tenth spot and the other Green candidates gained the 11th, 12th and 13th places. I wanted to be sure that Brian got a fair shot at retaining his seat. I wouldn't want him to lose by just one vote, knowing I could have made a difference. If it wasn't for the Democrats he would have easily received my 1st preference.
You may have noticed that I skipped the other two Democrat candidates. I did this because I honestly couldn't support them. The Democrats third candidate, Jason Meotti, had the privelege of being numbered 40, in last place behind even the CDP and Family Fraud!
Preferences 14 through to 23 were allocated to the remaining candidates except for the ALP, Coalition, Family First, One Nation and CDP.
The ALP (26, 25, 24) came in ahead of the Nationals (28, 27), One Nation (30, 29), Liberals (34, 33, 32, 31), Christian Democratic Party (37, 36, 35), and Family First (39, 38), with Jason Meotti taking up the rear. I numbered all of these candidates in reverse order of how they appeared under their party name - more hassle for the AEC workers, sorry!
As for my House of Representatives vote:
| 3 | Nikki ULASOWSKI | Socialist Alliance | 8 | Augustine LOH | Christian Democratic Party | 6 | Marie EDMONDS | Pauline Hanson's One Nation | 7 | Alexander LAWRANCE | Liberal | 4 | Ray BRADBURY | Australian Democrats | 5 | Stephen SMITH | Australian Labor Party | 2 | Ross Herbert RUSSELL | Citizens Electoral Council | 1 | Alison XAMON | The Greens |
All in all it will be interesting. I'm glued to the PC (haven't had a working tv for a year now) as we speak watching the updates come through on the ABC and the AEC websites.
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