Time to go digital? Bradfield cliffhanger a case for paperless elections

The Federal Election gave a defeat for the liberal party that peaked with the defeat of Peter Dutton and Bradfield’s ultra -marginal loss. Musician and writer Michael this He watched the number of votes emerged.

Despite the struggle for the number of liberal parties, Bradfield was won by the independent Nicolette Boele in the finest margins. For 75 years, Libs hired Bradfield’s seat in Sydney’s leafy northern snoring (sorry) and was one of the blue ribbon seats for many years.

In the previous elections, the seating member Paul Fletcher knew in 2025 that Fletcher was under serious threat and was under serious threat, which kept the seat only 2-3%.

Fletcher’s response? He escaped and sent the hospital to the gisele. There is no such thing to treat women like the last resort option!

I lived in Bradfield in most of my life, and I never dreamed of the possibility of such a close choice and I didn’t want to sit between them. Therefore, for six months, I entered Rollercoaster, which has become a glamorous social experiment about the Base Political Culture and the Australian Election Commission voting count, from January 2025 to July 2025.

It may not change the last trench offer in the seat by the knife.

But where should he start?

Social Media Campaign

First of all, the social media was circus: publishing things that make fun of the liberal party.

Soon, I saw the lack of self -awareness that prevented the liberals from laughing in their ranks.

I joked that Trump would bring 150% tariffs to Australian potatoes and that Dutton was in panic mode. Some people thought it was real, and how do I dare to make fun of Dutton’s alopecia? Since it is worth $ 300 million, I stated that it was a serious problem for him. Oops.

I published a nuclear power plant photo at the Ku-Ring-Gai National Park, not only providing cheaper power, but also said it would make our homes more suitable! Some people thought it was real and I was a fool because I didn’t understand their policies properly.

A photo of the big potatoes in Robertson in the Southern Plateaus, a photo decorated as a pig to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the film “Babe” with the line in which Dutton is running a secret campaign in Robertson ”, was not in the north of Robertson. The liberal troll was not a voter, but the town of Robertson, a joke. Youch.

Your strong and privileged, sarcasticness had never enjoyed. However, the jokes, satirical, parody response was much more than “not funny, friend”. It was anger in personal attacks. It was the tip of the cultural iceberg that sank the liberals’ ship.

Volunteering

In April, it was time to become a little more serious, so the next step was volunteer. He stands in the cabins before the fold, the door knocks, joins the rallies and distributes voting cards on the day of voting. I never did any of this and I never thought of me, but it was as eye -catching as social media circuses.

Bozos, tyrants and of course brothers had emerged, and the base culture of the liberals bloomed.

I’m sure there is a difficult core in the center of all political parties that can have similar problems. But for the liberals, their anger, sense of authority and lack of self -awareness were the images in the mirror they did not want to face. And their policies, declining membership and lack of elected female representatives are a symptom of this culture.

Finally, the big day and the next level eye -catching experience came: five -week scrutineering.

Watching the AEC is to count thousands of votes and choose which ones will challenge and witness, first hand: Boele’s Capteristan’s 1,600 voted election night is tight with only 40 votes (inevitably mail); Then see this opposite as minus eight (after the full distribution of preferences); And ultimately, it was a serious role to see this in the opposite again to +26 (after the last count).

Voting count features

The voting process is never understood.

Very comprehensive and very meticulous, but there are basic misunderstandings. As we all think, the ım Census ”is not a census. The votes were already counted and counted again, but rather, instead of kicking them all on the path and then making them return to the ship, they look like telling the children on a school trip after being on the bus.

This is the re -examination of a new count from scratch.

This is a subtle, but important difference, because when the Liberal party states that AC has created two contradictory results, it is not true.

AEC made a number that brought Boele to the age of 40. Later, they checked by looking at the preferences more closely, which led to the fact that the Pervterian was eighth ahead. And then they checked again, this time looking at the primary votes more closely, causing Boele to be ahead of 26. It does not create a conflicting result; It controls the previous census to make it more robust and explains the swings.

Time to be digital?

In this day and age, it is time to pour the pencils and paper, long -term and enlargement and make electronics. Either to introduce this or national calligraphy classes.

The handwriting is extraordinary subjective in the eaves, and the liberals appeal to the interpretation of the votes, such as the MCEWEN chair in 2007. Something similar dead.

At that time, Rob Mitchell (Alp) received six votes after the first issue, and then Fran Bailey (LIB) again went back to twelve ahead after the counting. He went to the controversial return court and the trial decided on the issue of “on merit” and personally checked 634 votes and Bailey’s leadership rose to 27. So we were here before.

However, when the dispute comes to court, we will hear much more. There are a few little known oddities that do not fully help our selection system.

You can’t write your name on the ballot because it defines you and makes your vote informal. But how does AEC know that you write your name, not your neighbors? Weird and uncertain, but there.

The much more common is in the AEC’s ballot, saying: ün Make all the boxes are important to ensure that your vote is important. ”

But the truth is that you don’t need to number all the boxes. You can leave one empty and must be completely empty. Because if it is empty, it is assumed that it is your last choice.

However, if there is a smallest pen sign in that box, so it is not completely empty: the ballot suddenly suddenly informal.

In the rules and on the AEC’s website, but when a pencil specification in an empty box, the difference between the official and informal picture of the vote… I think we can do a little better.

“Bradfield 2025: What happened?” By Michael Buining will be available in Amazon as of July 27th.

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