SO WHAT SORT OF VOTING SYSTEM DOES SOUTH AUSTRALIA ENDURE?

South Australia has one of the worst electoral systems in the world, even worse the 2010 election found tens of thousands of votes simply going missing, along with dozens of breaches of what little protections we have left. , easily the worst in Australia, and yet the average South Aussie would beg to differ. Nearly all South Australians would believe we live in a democracy, and that when they vote their vote is counted in a fair and unbiased manner.  Unfortunately this is not the case I am afraid!

The problems with our state's voting system are many.  The electoral office provides a guide on how to vote that has been, in the past, quite misleading.  There has been a lack of fair information, and our ability to become informed is almost impossible.  We have no freedom to vote in the specific way that we might choose, because we must preference even those we oppose.  In fact the electoral commission can even count your vote for candidates not even endorsed on your ballot paper.  In fact the electoral commission believes it can guess your intention with out regards to what you have marked because they believe they can guess your intention further than what you have marked. Our counting system is biased in favour of the 2 major parties. Ask your self why they supply voters with a pencil to fill in such an important document.  Would you sign a contract or write a cheque with a pencil?

The current electoral system in our state forces us to attend to vote, but not necessarily cast a vote.  If we want to exercise our right to cast a vote we must have a preference for all the candidates.  We must place a number in all the boxes on the ballot paper.  This is the first attack on our freedom to choose as there will undoubtedly be candidates on the ballot paper who we do not wish to even consider in our vote.  The reason for the inclusion of this rule becomes more understandable when we investigate the counting system.  The vote counting is 2-party preferred.  This means that no matter how we wish to vote, the counting is set up so that your vote, in most cases, ends up with one of the candidates representing Australia's two major parties.  Most states of Australia do not force you to vote for those you oppose.

There are many who attend the polling place on election day and choose not to vote.  Some simply do not understand how.  Many have literacy problems, some are vision impaired, or perhaps there is a lack of understanding of our language.  There are even those who may have moved here from other states where electoral rules are more transparent.  Most other states have optional preferential voting.   All of this results in thousands of ballot papers being incorrectly marked or left blank.  The guide which is provided by the electoral commission can also be confusing and misleading.  Voters are instructed not to use ticks or crosses, and fill in all of the boxes on the ballot paper.  If you do use ticks or crosses, or if you do not fill in all the boxes, your vote will not count!   That would mean if you did use a tick or a cross, or in fact didn’t fill in all the boxes your intention would be an invalid vote.  Unfortunately this is not so!  In some cases they are counted.  In fact, the electoral commission believes it can guess your intention and even change what you have marked, so if you arrive in our state from elsewhere in Australia and only voted for those you preferred and did not fill in all the boxes, the scrutineers could take your number 1 choice and count your vote for candidates you have not marked.  How can anybody possibly know what your intention is?  In 2006 the courts upheld their right to do -  so where have your votes ended up?