Vote Below The Line!

Okay, two election posts in a row is a bit much I know, but I think this is worth it. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Australian Federal Election is being held on 21 August 2010. When picking your favourite party in the Senate (or perhaps, the the ‘least worst’ party) you probably don’t think too much about their preferences. If you usually vote above the line, think about this:

ALP and Democrat voters helped elect Steven Fielding of the Family First Party to the Senate in 2004. They may not have intended to but that’s what happened when they voted above the line in the Senate.

Regardless of whether you like Steven Fielding, having your vote end up with him when you were in fact voting for the ALP or the Democrats is a bit disconcerting. And before you tell me that voting below the line is a total pain in the ass, this election there are a few handy tools on the internet to help you out.

The main one is the Vote Below The Line! website. Select your state, your preferred party and check out where your preferences are going to go.

Happy with where they’re going? Great! Vote above the line!

Not happy? Well, by doing some simple clicking and dragging you can arrange how your want the preferences to be and then download a PDF file which shows you how you can vote below the line based on your own preferences.

And if you’ve made it this far in the post, you deserve an amusing cat image to make it all better.