Riverina MP and former deputy PM Michael McCormack says anyone not willing to cast a legitimate vote has no right to complain about the outcome of the election.

In short:

A high number of informal votes in a rural NSW electorate with a record number of candidates has been labelled “shameful” by the region’s MP.

By May 6 more than 11,000 informal votes had been recorded in the Riverina electorate, accounting for more than 10 per cent of the voter turnout.

What’s next?

Riverina MP Michael McCormack and political scientist Dominic O’Sullivan say the voting system should be reformed.

  • eureka@aussie.zoneEnglish
    0·
    5 days ago

    My understanding is that an informal vote IS a valid way of voting.

    An intentional informal vote is a valid form of political expression. I think it’s stupid idealism, and it’s not a valid vote, but it’s valid as political expression. Like you mentioned, there are also accidental informal votes, like [1, 2, 3, 1, 4] or [1, , , , ].

    (A donkey vote, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], is a valid vote)

    • Zagorath@aussie.zoneEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      I wish we could get data on this, but it is unfortunately so hard to know which is which, so the AEC doesn’t even try. Is the person who numbered all boxes apart from two intending to vote informally? Did they make a mistake in filling out their ballot? Did they misunderstand how it works? What about the person who filled out a Senate ballot above the line completely correctly, but also wrote “1” next to like 8 different candidates below the line?

    • Tenderizer@aussie.zoneEnglish
      0·
      5 days ago

      More people should spoil their ballot instead of doing the donkey vote. If they want to express disinterest, the former is better than the latter.