Transition blues

I'm reading Jonathan Alter's The Defining Moment, which goes into the first hundred days of Franklin Roosevelt's administration in 1933. Alter in particular looks at the interregnum between the November election and the inauguration on March 5, the same date as every president was...

Nationals experiment with open primaries

Via Pollbludger, a fascinating story in the Australian the other day has revealed plans by the NSW Nationals to trial using open primaries to preselect a candidate in a winnable seat for the 2011 NSW state election. All voters in the electorate would be...

Frome by-election

The electors of Frome in South Australia went to the polls today to elect a new member of the South Australian House of Assembly to succeed former Liberal Premier Rob Kerin. Counting has concluded for the night, and was covered by Pollbludger and Antony...

2009 election preview: Indonesia

Indonesia will go to the polls during 2009 for their second direct presidential election and to elect the new Indonesian Parliament. The legislative election will take place on April 9, with the first round of the presidential election in July. In the likely case...

2009 election preview: Japan

Japan will go to the polls for a national election in 2009, at any point up to September. The election will be contested by LDP Prime Minister Taro Aso and Democratic Party leader Ichirō Ozawa. Japanese politics has been dominated by the conservative Liberal Democratic...

Barnaby Joyce for the lower house?

In response to claims of John Howard encouraging Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce to move to the House of Representatives, Sean Parnell has penned speculation in the Australian about potential seats Joyce could take on. Parnell rules out National-held seats such as Maranoa in...

2009 election preview: South Africa

The Republic of South Africa will go to the polls for its fourth national election since the end of Apartheid, with the election expected between April and June 2009. The election will see the African National Congress attempt to win a fourth term in...

Possum takes on Australia’s electorates

Over at Crikey's Pollytics blog, Possum has started a series profiling the demographics of all 150 Australian House of Representatives electorates. So far he has posted profiles of Adelaide, Aston, Ballarat and Banks. Check it out.

Welcome to the new and improved Tally Room

Welcome to the new website. I'll be using this in place of my previous wordpress.com website. You'll notice a new design and the placement of some subtle advertising. I'll try and keep it out-of-the-way. The new website should also allow me to do more...

The Redistricting Game

A weekend treat for all you electoral nuts out there: I've just discovered the Redistricting Game. It's a net-based computer game built by people campaigning for fair electoral districts in the US. Basically you play as the person appointed to draw boundaries in the...