Australian’s don’t have to produce more than that either.
But you are only enrolled in a single electorate (for each tier Federal, State or local), and while you could turn up to any number of polling booths within that electorate, the Australian Electoral Commission do check. And all the major parties have scrutineers that cross-check.
The level of fraud is substantially below the counting margin for error and if you aren’t going to have a substantive influence on the total vote, why would you bother?
I’m an American and the closest I’ve ever come to having to show ID to vote is signing my name beside my name in the big book of all the precinct’s voters.
and poor character is a problem across teh full spectrum of politics. When I say I support the Labour Party, this is not the same as saying I blindly trust every MP in it to be a shining paragon of virtue. One of the reasons I have just joined the Party is to have more info, and a better understanding, but when it comes down to ideals etc, Labour is where I am at.
Ah, so he’s your fault then. <narrows eyes at Scougs>
They showed a clip of one of his early speeches on telly the other day. There’s a certain wry comedy in seeing the current lot in power as they were in the days when they addressed each other as “comrade”. (Yes, US viewers, Labour politicians really did this in the 1980s.)
This is my first time as an eligible voter pretty much anywhere (not a youngster, just expatriate most of my life), and I’m somewhere between excited and dismayed. Excited because, well, first time voting. Dismayed because none of my choices seem all that appealing. I like a lot of the Greens’ policies, but completely disagree with some. Same with the Lib Dems. So, I don’t know, I’ll flip a coin?
Any vote for anyone other than Labour, is a vote for the Conservatives. Why not make it official and just put your X in their box? At least all those votes might make them feel loved and a little more likely to make policy compassionately*!
And who knows, we might even see a squadron of flying pigs heralding their victory afterwards.
I always find that kind of argument rather patronising and arrogant. Maybe people who vote, say, Lib Dem know that the election result is going to be either a Tory majority or a hung parliament, have taken that into account, but are not going to vote Labour because, you know, they don’t like Labour’s policies or its leadership?
My local MP is a Tory. He’s not bad as a constituency MP, but he’s frustratingly inconistent in his voting records.
He tends to be loyal to the whips, but voted against the Tories to support the Human-Animal Hybrid Bill recently which earns him respect in my eyes.
He voted in favour of the smoking ban (good thing IMO), but then signed an early day motion supporting homeopathy in the NHS (d’oh!).
In some ways I wish he was an old skool “hang 'em, flog 'em” shire Tory, so I would have no problem voting for someone else, but he does seem quite close to my own views in certain areas, yet utterly opposite in others.
Plus he came out of the expenses row pretty clean, and did reply to me when I wrote asking him to oppose the (abandoned) bill to prevent expenses being released.
The Labour chap is a total non-entity who used to be the MP until 2005 and now wants to get back in, but he’s so far been pretty anonymous.
In local elections I’ll sometimes vote for one of the real fringe or single-interest parties. Overall my vote won’t make a difference to the result, but local democracy relies on having keen people pushing local causes… even getting 150 votes can give them the sense that people believe in what they are doing, and keeps 'em fighting the good fight.
I am, apparently, 55% UKIP and 49% BNP. I’m 46% Tory and LibDem, 45% Labour and 22% Green. Yes, I asked it to compare all of the parties. Hmm…better get my tin hat on now.
My local MP is a Labour man through and through. He has never voted against the party ever, not once, not even in a free vote. If you want a “Yes” man, he’s the one for you.
My top two are the Tories and Lib Dems. The Lib Dems need an 8% swing to dislodge the current Labour embarrassment in my ward, whereas the Tories need 15%. I think that’s settled who I’ll vote for!
Has he justified his voting? Because if done for good reason, he sounds like a good MP regardless of party; if done because of financial interest, he sounds like someone who should be given the boot.
70% Conservative, 54% Labour, 48% UKIP, 36% LibDem, 34% BNP, 14% Green. That’s pretty much as I expected although I thought my COnservative score would be a little lower.
As a 13-year ex-Pat, I am clearly not up to speed on everything going on “back home”. SATs for 11-year olds? What’s that and whose stupid idea is it? I thought that sort of thing died out with the 11-plus and the demise of the grammar schools.