You might have noticed that I haven’t been posting much on the blog over the last few weeks. One of the main reasons is that I have been working on a new project for the blog. I’m launching the first stage of that project today.
Basically I plan to do profiles of each House of Representatives seat and each Senate race before the federal election. Each profile contains various information about the seat, including candidates, history, and maps of polling booths. Most importantly, each page includes a comments thread. I wanted to post these profiles early to give people a place to discuss the lead-up to the campaign in each seat.
It’s taking me a long time to write the profiles for these seats, so I decided I would launch the guide in an unfinished state. So far I have written profiles on the NSW Senate race and seven House of Representatives seats, the two each in the ACT and Northern Territory and three of Tasmania’s five seats. I will post updates as I write more profiles over coming weeks and months.
Of course, each profile will change over the next year after it is first written, in particular the sections listing candidates and the political situation are expected to change as we get closer to the election. I encourage you to post any information in the comments thread for the relevant seat.
Good luck mate, you’re really embarking on a massive task here, especially keeping it updated closer to the election. Gotta love your thoroughness and dedication. Have fun – it’s an excellent idea and I hope it works as you envisage.
I’ll certainly try and help you out when I can by posting updated info in comments as things get busier and harder for you to keep up with everything. I actually tried doing something similar (although a little less ambitious) before the 2007 election, but only got half-way through the Senate races before I realised I wouldn’t be finished in time so gave up. I was just reading them again last week and I’d forgotten just how thorough I’d been, they were almost a match for your thoroughness.
One suggestion on the maps, I reckon you shouldn’t bother with going into decimal places for the 50% booths, just leave them as 50 and the colour tells which party won. Less clutter on the maps that way.
Oh, and a little typo there on the NSW senators. The Nationals senator should be John Williams, not Stephesn.
I actually found the way you wrote the senate history a bit confusing, but I think it was just how thorough you’re being. A historical comparison of the primary vote totals for each party might be good as well, at least including 2004 as well, but if you wanted to be really thorough you could go back to, say, 1993, which I often think is a good election for comparison as the non-major party vote was so low.
Fantastic, will keep watching.
/slap
Take that PB, Possum and Antony.
Keep it up Ben.
Just want to say that you’re doing a great job Ben. It’s appreciated.
Great idea, Mr Raue. I guess you’re hoping there is no DD then? Can I suggest you begin with the most marginal seats, as these would be the most likely to change hands? Particularly interested in W.A. seats, which is where the real action is lkely to be, given current polling trends.