After Victorian Labor’s political master stroke of picking a fight with CFA volunteers a fortnight before an election, I suppose Shorten would be at least grateful that NSW Labor waited until AFTER the election to fearlessly spring to the defence of the greyhound industry, which is so absolutely rotten to the core and dependent in equal parts on gambling and animal cruelty that even a body as famously cautious as the justice dept believed it couldn’t be salvaged.
Turnbull and Shorten both want electronic voting.Well if they can make it safe and unable to be hacked then brilliant.
“Hacking” would be the least of concerns. The sheer enormity of cost in building, maintaining, storing, setting up and packing down equipment that only gets dragged once every couple of years should be enough to discourage it.
I can just imagine the development company that secures the $750m government contract for voting software and delivers a 20fps Android app that’s a shell of a website.
Get rid of compulsory voting then those who find it too much of an inconvenience can choose not to vote. I've never understood how democracy & compulsion to vote can co-exist in this country, virtually no other significant democracy has it. Seems to me its more eagerly defended by the left which is again strange as it seems at odds with their basic principles. I've always assumed they figured they had more to lose.
Yep democracy is over-rated, and gives us all heart-burn. Maybe just a lottery to pick the Leader and then he/she can pick his own squad. We all could buy PM-Lotto ticket at say $50, and buy as many as you like or none.
Not sure you would that many entries though.
As soon as there is a choice whether to vote there is motive to stopping people voting.
I don’t think we want that added into our system.
Get rid of compulsory voting then those who find it too much of an inconvenience can choose not to vote. I've never understood how democracy & compulsion to vote can co-exist in this country, virtually no other significant democracy has it. Seems to me its more eagerly defended by the left which is again strange as it seems at odds with their basic principles. I've always assumed they figured they had more to lose.
I believe it was brought in due to us having a very small population so needing to make sure that enough people will vote. You cannot really have a 30% turnout when you have a small population.
That being said we may be big enough now to see how it goes by removing compulsion. Then again I find most people I work with quite apathetic on things of little consequence so I cannot imagine how they would go voting if they didn’t have to.
Get rid of compulsory voting then those who find it too much of an inconvenience can choose not to vote. I’ve never understood how democracy & compulsion to vote can co-exist in this country, virtually no other significant democracy has it. Seems to me its more eagerly defended by the left which is again strange as it seems at odds with their basic principles. I’ve always assumed they figured they had more to lose.
Turnbull and Shorten both want electronic voting.Well if they can make it safe and unable to be hacked then brilliant.
“Hacking” would be the least of concerns. The sheer enormity of cost in building, maintaining, storing, setting up and packing down equipment that only gets dragged once every couple of years should be enough to discourage it.
This is very true. I was part of the team that built the census online back in 2006 and The time and costs were huge. Maintaining a system that is used for a few weeks on a national scale once every 3 years will be the most prohibitive component.
In Victorian Local Government elections, which are virtually all postal ballots, each ballot paper is scanned into a computer and the votes are counted electronically. So the VEC already has a lot of the hardware, and just as many votes are counted in Council elections as in House of Reps. Senate may be more difficult due to size of ballot paper, but it is all possible.
Wife works for the AEC
That is being done with the Senate ballot papers this year
All scanned and computer counted is the final step after manual check counting (which is happening now)
I like the paper vote. 20 minutes out of my day once every three years isn't too much to ask. Plus it's quaint.It is quaint, but it is a severely flawed system. I have scrutineered for many years and the mistakes that are made are bewildering. And if you are a bombastic prick like me and the AEC kids are young and inexperienced, then you can influence the count.
In Victorian Local Government elections, which are virtually all postal ballots, each ballot paper is scanned into a computer and the votes are counted electronically. So the VEC already has a lot of the hardware, and just as many votes are counted in Council elections as in House of Reps. Senate may be more difficult due to size of ballot paper, but it is all possible.
Electronic counting, sure, absolutely.
But any electronic collection of votes is going to create far more problems than it will solve.
I like the paper vote. 20 minutes out of my day once every three years isn't too much to ask. Plus it's quaint.
It is quaint, but it is a severely flawed system. I have scrutineered for many years and the mistakes that are made are bewildering. And if you are a bombastic prick like me and the AEC kids are young and inexperienced, then you can influence the count.
In Victorian Local Government elections, which are virtually all postal ballots, each ballot paper is scanned into a computer and the votes are counted electronically. So the VEC already has a lot of the hardware, and just as many votes are counted in Council elections as in House of Reps. Senate may be more difficult due to size of ballot paper, but it is all possible.
Online voting seems to be the go in some places.
I doubt if most people would trust it though. We’d probably end up with some Nigerian guy who’s trying to collect his gold, but needs you to send him a few thou just to get him started.
I like the paper vote. 20 minutes out of my day once every three years isn’t too much to ask. Plus it’s quaint.
Turnbull and Shorten both want electronic voting.Well if they can make it safe and unable to be hacked then brilliant.
“Hacking” would be the least of concerns. The sheer enormity of cost in building, maintaining, storing, setting up and packing down equipment that only gets dragged once every couple of years should be enough to discourage it.
Turnbull and Shorten both want electronic voting.Well if they can make it safe and unable to be hacked then brilliant.
They are trying to solve the wrong problem. The problem isn’t in the voting, its in the counting.
They need electronic counting.
They could do that with optical readers. Might be a bit difficult for the senate but could certainly be done in the lower house.
Well I am now convinced after 5 minutes in here that the ALP has a virtual branch operating in the Blitz Politics thread.
But one thing is true, you might be skilled at stacking branches, and run clever scare campaigns, but you can only vote once and only 1 in 3 Australians chose the ALP as their first preference at the last election so you are in a minority in the wider Australian political context.
Funnily enough one of my friends from school days is ALP member and union organiser and his parents ran the local Liberal Party branch. He took delight in coming into the living room and sitting down amongst them, disrupting branch meetings if they ever held meetings at home. It was a bit like Dermie running through the Essendon huddle.
I dont propose to do that it in your virtual branch. I have better things to do.
Laters
Turnbull and Shorten both want electronic voting.
Well if they can make it safe and unable to be hacked then brilliant.
Bill concedes.
Reality eventually hits even the delusional.
*some
Hopefully this is the wake up for Malcolm in the middle to now get on with the job of running this country . Get the marriage rights through , get dome political goodwill and off you go