Once again, my final set of voting preferences still requires a bit of tweaking, but I have grouped the parties into eleven categories, to help figure out where to put people on the ballot. Why eleven categories? Because that way I can give my favourite parties ‘Douze points’ and award the gun-totin’ racists ‘Nul points’ in best Eurovision style. Also, it turns out that I do have eleven distinct categories, so there you go.
I’m not really ranking parties within categories – I mean, yes, based on how I feel about them right at this moment, I’ve put my preferred options at the top of each category, but I often make slight changes to my final rankings at the ballot box. And some of those parties are ones I don’t have the option to vote for anyway. Besides, I feel it’s good to preserve some minor level of mystique about my actual vote…
Finally, before you start reading this, allow me to draw to your attention the Senate Voting Card Creator website. This excellent website allows you to list your parties and then your candidates in your order of preference, and then generates a printer-friendly list, so that you can easily see which numbers will go into which box when you vote below the line, and don’t risk missing a number somewhere. I was very sad when Below the Line closed down, and am delighted to see that this website has now replaced it.
NB: I’ve noted the Group next to parties running in Victoria. For parties running only outside Victoria, I’ve noted where they are running.
