Culture

How Not To Completely Fuck It Up When You Vote In Saturday’s Election

Don't accidentally vote for some crazy racist this weekend.

by Osman Faruqi  29 June 2016

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A record 56 parties are contesting this year’s federal election, meaning there’s never been a more exciting time to fill out your absurdly large Senate ballot paper.

Because most of the media coverage in this election campaign has been focused on the tussle between Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten, you might not know who these 56 parties are and what they stand for. Thankfully, some legends have built the awesome DonkeyVotie (DonkeyVotie… Don Quixote… get it? No, I didn’t either), a website which they describe as “An unofficial, offbeat, and irreverent guide to Australian politics”.

According to the team behind DonkeyVotie, “Figuring out how to vote in the Senate is a daunting task. There’s all these strange parties you’ve never heard of, with odd names and no information about what they represent or what they stand for.

“This is the first election where you can vote above the line in the Senate and have your votes go to only the parties that you want them to go to, so make it count!”

There’s two good reasons to pay extra special attention to your Senate ballot paper this election. Recent reforms to the voting system mean that you get to decide your preferences above the line for the first time. Previously most voters just marked a “1” above the line and their preferences were directed by the political party they voted for. Now voters can preference as many parties as they like, with a minimum of six preferences above the line.

Because this election is a double dissolution election the whole Senate is up for grabs. At a normal election only half the Senate is up for election. This means the quota (the number of votes a candidate needs to get elected to the Senate) has halved. The combination of these two changes mean that a whole swag of minor parties have a pretty good chance of getting elected.

So who should you vote for? The Health Australia Party? Vote Flux? The Science/Cyclists Party alliance? That’s where DonkeyVotie comes in. The website summarises each party’s policy statement, places them somewhere on the political spectrum and provides links to further information. There’s even a handy button you can click to complain about the entry if you don’t think it’s accurate.

Lachlan Drummond, one of the young Australians behind the website, explained to Junkee why they decided to build DonkeyVotie.

“My friend Sam Thorp (the brains behind the website) was struggling to find a website that could tell him who the various minor parties were on the ballot paper. He put out a call on Facebook, but none of us could find anywhere that had a full list.

“Sam decided to take action by creating a spreadsheet that became the basis of the site. While I was on a day off sick I decided to make a list of the right wing crazy parties so that my friends wouldn’t vote for them. Sam imported these into the spreadsheet and then opened it up to everyone to just come in and edit.”

A bunch of other mates then added in the rest of the parties and Thorp decided to turn the spreadsheet into DonkeyVotie. Most of the contributors to the site are self-described lefties but according to Lachlan, “We didn’t intend this to be a piece of left wing propaganda. We want it to be something that fills a gap in what people need to make an informed choice.

“I guess I was personally motivated by wanting to make sure my own friends didn’t accidentally vote for some lunatic who wanted to abolish halal snack packs.”

There’s been a lot of commentary this election about younger voters being less engaged with the political system. The DonkeyVotie team are hoping to cut through the cynicism and help younger votes find out which candidates represent their views.

“I think a lot of young people shy away from politics because they believe that politicians, especially those from the major parties, don’t listen to their issues and only listen to the issues of baby boomers,” Lachlan said.

Australians are spoiled for choice this election. There are more parties running than ever before and it’s likely a whole stack of minor parties (including Pauline Hanson) could get elected. Thanks to DonkeyVotie it’s easier than ever to make an informed decision. Get on it!

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Check out Donkey Votie here.