QLD council elections 2020 – ward redistributions
I've posted a few times recently about the Brisbane City Council ward redistribution, but it's not the only Queensland council redrawing its electoral boundaries.
A total of 17 councils are undergoing redistributions during this council term in the lead-up to next March's election.
So far 11...
Queensland government backflips on compulsory preferences for councils
The Queensland government has dropped the key piece of its council reform package, by abandoning plans to change the council voting system, a change that would have likely boosted Labor's chances of taking control of the City of Brisbane.
The original package included a variety...
Victoria 2018 – Voter numbers keep rising thanks to enrolment boost
The Victorian Electoral Commission has published more information about turnout at the 2018 state election as part of their submission to the inquiry into that election, with some interesting bits I wanted to pull out. In particular, there's evidence that turnout dropped due to...
The pre-poll surge: what, exactly, is the problem?
A parliamentary inquiry into the 2019 federal election has recently finished receiving submissions, and amongst other issues a number of commentators have bemoaned the growing numbers of voters casting their votes early.
Federal minister Paul Fletcher is worrying about how the volume of pre-poll voting...
No names above the line hurt independents
The Senate race in the Australian Capital Territory often promises to get interesting, but never really does. The quota for election in the ACT is just over one third of the total formal vote, and the two seats have been split evenly between Labor...
Breaking up the Senate? Why it’s such a bad idea
The Australian reported on Sunday about an idea from Queensland LNP senator James McGrath that would see the Senate broken up so that senators represent "provinces" within each state. While details are scarce, this proposal would see the end of proportional representation in the Senate, would...
Below-the-line rates go up in 2019
This is the latest in my occasional series looking back at the final results of the 2019 federal election.
The 2019 federal election was the second election held under the new Senate voting system, which included changes to make it easier to vote below-the-line. The...
Voting system change boosts Labor and Greens in Brisbane City
I posted back in March about the Queensland government's proposed reforms to local government in that state. The reforms include a bunch of other changes to electoral finance and council procedures, but I focused on two proposed changes: introducing compulsory preferential voting for single-member...