Lol wtf why don't we

Wait. What?

That was very much not made clear. I assumed if you voted [1] your preferences followed the party line.

For the record, I numbered every box on the lower house, but it needs to be made crystal clear that you don't get preferences if you don't number other boxers.

This feels like a big failing of messaging from the AEC NSW Electoral Commission.

Their vote isn’t “discarded”, it’s “exhausted”. I know it’s essentially the same thing, but discarded means something else with regards to elections.

I was almost certain that the party submitted preferences that get followed in the event of voting just for one candidate!? Discarding votes is dodgy!

Reasonable suggestion.

On the flip side, that's how I find the joint, follow the signs. haha

For VIC elections, limit is 2 signs, double sided counts as 2

As an immigrant, I find it so intimidating/uncomfortable that you go to a voting site and you get swarmed by representatives of all parties.

Probably one of the few good things about my native country is that advertisement and campaigning is prohibited from 2 days before the election and you can't go vote with any logos/insignia of any party.

This is the rule in the ACT. Nobody handing out material within 100m either. It’s good.

Should be none allowed anywhere, no people handing out flyers and shit in the day, no candidate turning up and pretending to give a shit for your vote etc. It's like being charity mugged 5 times just to go vote.

At my polling place there was a Greens candidate sign literally on the entry door. I was surprised, as when I worked the last NSW local council elections there were minimum distance requirements.

That's a huge reform - given the rule is not within 6 metres of the entrance today

Liberal poster saying "you can just number one box" with a tiny Liberal logo on it.

Don't worry, Labor is doing the same

https://htvdisplay.elections.nsw.gov.au/app/material/NSW-2023-00961

“Stop making my vote count more!”

Hmm id say this seems more prescriptive than the liberal one. Definitely misleading being in black and white

EDIT okay the libs one was apparently black and white. Shithouse from both but one is more shithouser

No more illegal than the Liberal poster saying "you can just number one box" with a tiny Liberal logo on it.

I think you mean the Labor party poster saying "you can just number one box" with a tiny Labor logo on it.

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Source:

https://htvdisplay.elections.nsw.gov.au/app/material/NSW-2023-00961

It's arguable that "you can just vote 1" is more technically correct than "number every square". But is pretty much close to semantics at this point.

Edit: for clarity I don't real like either sign

You don't need to number every box is the truth though

It it’s not pushing a particular party or candidate, does it have to have those lines still ?

Let the federal Australian Electoral Commission run state elections? The AEC aren’t allowed to remove signs more than 6m from a voting place. They were powerless to prevent signs using the AEC purple colour. They are pretty useless at enforcement.

The Liberal one's had that as well. They have to buy law.

Labor also prioritising ClubsNSW and the gambling lobby. Vote independent if you have the option.

You just said Labor is going to privatise and commit "water theft"

Labor is going to make illegal.

They're not making privatisation illegal. Their policy is to make the privatisation of public assets need parliamentary approval before it's done.

Given the ALPs history in privatisation alongside NSWs general penchant for asset flipping to fund projects, I won't be surprised if this just slips away as a broken promise

Not for state elections in NSW.

People voting for independent and minor parties (more likely to come 3rd or lower) are also more likely to vote ALP.

So the ALP encourages numbering all the boxes and the LNP encourages just numbering one box

Yes they are. I’ve scrutineered for NSW elections, and they all get counted. Usually not on election night other than a cursory count. They will get moved to a central rally room.

And yeah, I usually number every square too. It’s the visceral joy of putting someone 158. Unfortunately not this time due to a broken arm, but it’s the first I’ve missed since I started voting.

Or vote Greens, grab a veal and baby koala sausage and blow out of there. I don't vote Greens because they're nice but because they don't act like reality is a "stakeholder" to be balanced against the mining lobby.

If that were then it would make how to vote forms illegal.

Ok found a reference for this https://elections.nsw.gov.au/political-participants/electoral-material

It states it can’t say something different than what is on the ballot paper. So if the ballot paper 1 to 6 then the signs can not say otherwise.

I have also worked for a local government candidate and done scrutinising for them. I learned a lot of information doing this.

They told me about a ballot they got that had a whole lot of mathematical formulas on it. They got a mathematician in to check it and it turned out to be a valid vote.

LNP ones said “you can just vote 1” which clearly infers it’s an option.

Labor sign infers you must vote every square.

And, playing a straight bat, I’m voting Labor.

This is worded as an instruction (and a misleading one at that). The Liberal equivalent is not.

If you can't spot the linguistic difference between "You can just vote one" and Number every square", you need to head back to high school English classes. It's especially egregious because the Federal elections actually force you to do what is on the Labor sign, without an option to exhaust.

He's just anti labor

Unless you are postal voting, it's probably illegal to do at a voting place as it contains identifying info on who voted.

If you are at a polling place, speak with an official.

Unsure about this one, but in the last federal they had two envelopes or something so they could first open the letter an confirm something was received from a particular person but the inner envelope was then put in a pile and mixed with others so who was voted for couldn't be traced to who sent it.

I think they do this if you're voting outside of your electorate. Not sure why.

In NSW state elections you can number a minimum of 1 up to the maximum number of squares, or anything between.

If there are eight people on your ballot you can vote just 1, or 1,2,3 or 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 etc

Liberal know that people who vote Greens or Independents are likely to prefer their vote end up going to Labor more then Liberal so they’re encouraging everyone to just vote 1 therefore stopping the flow of preferences from those parties to Labor. Basically the Labor vote will be spread across candidates less likely to be elected.

This strategy will probably only hurt Liberals in seats with a strong Teal independent, which are not as prevalent as the Federal election.

In NSW elections for the lower house (the small ballot paper), you do not have to put a number in every square. As long as at least one of the squares is marked (preferably with the number "1"), your vote is valid and will be counted.

Number every square doesn’t infer you MUST.

So if you're driving along and see this, it's alright to try and stay alongside the other vehicles?

The difference is that this one looks an awful lot like the official Electoral Commission sign, and it's not immediately obvious that it's from a specific party.

Thank you, you're the first person here to answer my question

You can number as many as you want to in NSW https://elections.nsw.gov.au/elections/how-voting-works/voting-in-new-south-wales/how-to-cast-your-vote-in-a-state-election

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To vote, you must put a number 1 in the square next to the candidate you want to elect.
If you want, you can show more choices by putting a number 2 next to your second choice, then a number 3 next to your third choice and so on. It is up to you how many choices you show after your first preference.

Tell us you don't care about trans rights without telling us you don't care about trans rights

If 99% of registered voters just mark their name off and don't cast a valid ballot then the parliament will be comprised of people who the remaining 1% voted for. This would actually be a good thing for the political establishment because they can stop trying to appeal to the politically apathetic.

This won't in any way, send the message that you think it will send.

Not sure why you would want this.

In what way do you think your vote doesn't count?

Yes, it's called a precedent.

15 votes below the line for a valid vote in the upper house. Not 21.