Frequently asked questions – Queensland 2015

This guide includes a lot of content and I regularly get asked questions about how it is structured and why I make decisions about what information is included.

Please also post here any questions about the structure of the guide or suggestions about improvements.

Which candidates or parties get featured in your maps and tables?

Each profile includes a table showing results of the last election – all candidates are included in this table.

I also include a table breaking down each electorate into smaller geographic areas. For this table I usually include the two-party-preferred (2PP) figure for the party that won the electorate. The nature of this figure means that you can also derive the two-party-preferred figure for the candidate who came second.

Because the two-party-preferred figure is an estimate (see below for an explanation of why and how I calculate this estimate), I usually include the primary vote figures for both the top two candidates.

If a third candidate polled over 10%, I also include them in the table. If there is a fourth candidate polling over 10% I might include them too, sometimes at the expense of the 2PP figure.

In most cases this means that I include either the Labor or LNP 2PP, and the primary vote for Labor, LNP and either Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) or the Greens. In a majority of Queensland seats, KAP came third.

As far as maps, again I usually use a two-party-preferred map. Because of this, I don’t include primary vote maps for the top two polling candidates. My general rule has been that candidates who don’t come in the top two get a map included if they have polled over 10%. Again, this mostly includes KAP or Greens candidates, but does include some others.

What does a candidate have to do to get included on a local electorate profile?

Until the official declaration of nominations, there is no official list of declared candidates in a seat. The lists featured on this blog are compiled from numerous sources, including party websites, comments on this blog, news stories and web searches. In the case of Labor, the LNP, Palmer United Party and the Greens I have found official lists on their websites and I consult these lists occasionally.

I don’t try and claim that it is a complete and final list. Candidates for small parties and independent candidates can be missed, and major parties are still preselecting for some seats.

Moreover, I’m not making it my job to seek out local news stories and websites of small political parties to ensure every candidate is located.

If a candidate is missing, you can post their name in the comments section on that page, and I will add them to the list. This can take up to a week before I have a chance to make an update.

Once the official candidate lists have been announced, the official lists will be posted in ballot order.

Why do only some candidates have links?

I will link to a candidate’s personal website, or a profile on their party’s website. I won’t linkto a generic page that profiles or lists more than one candidate. I am happy to link to a Facebook or Twitter profile if that is the only link I can find, but I prefer to use a candidate’s own website or their own page on their party’s website.

I have been prioritising collecting the names of candidates over finding links to their web pages. If a candidate has an appropriate webpage but no link under their name, please post the link and I will update the page.

What is the difference between two-party-preferred and two-candidate-preferred?

In Australia’s preferential voting system, the count is continued until only two candidates remain in the race. The votes that these two candidates have built up in this final round is called the “two-candidate-preferred” vote (2CP). Since there are only two candidates at this point, you can derive the other candidate’s 2CP vote by subtracting one candidate’s vote from 100.

The “two-party-preferred” vote (2PP) is the final vote between the Labor candidate and the LNP candidate. In most cases, the 2PP and 2CP vote is the same. I have used the term two-party-preferred where the two final candidates are Labor and LNP – I have otherwise used the more accurate ‘two-candidate-preferred’.

In most cases, the 2PP vote has been used, but in seats where an independent or minor party candidate comes in the top two, the 2CP vote has been used. There were thirteen seats in 2012 where the LNP won and someone other than Labor came second. There were also two seats where Katter’s Australian Party won, and two seats where an independent won.

In most seats, I have included two-party-preferred figures either in the map, or in the booth breakdown table, or both. In some cases I don’t consider the 2PP figures to

How do you calculate two-party-preferred votes?

Unfortunately the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) does not publish two-party-preferred or two-candidate-preferred results at a booth level (or for special votes) – they only publish the figures as a seat-wide total.

The ECQ does publish primary votes for each booth. In order to produce an estimate of the 2PP or 2CP, I take the primary votes in each booth and distribute preferences from smaller candidates in the same proportions as they were distributed overall.

Wherever you see a 2PP or 2CP figure for any area smaller than a whole electorate, that is an estimate that I have calculated for this purpose.

How do I get in touch?

If you have a correction or an update for a single electorate page, feel free to post a comment. You can also send us an email by using this form.

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