electoral hanky-panky

Comrades,

With the election going right down to the wire, every vote counts.
Especially in those seats to be decided by 100 votes or less, where the scrutineers will argue endlessly over what is a valid vote and what's not, complicated by the Electoral Act which gives the Commissioner the power to declare what on the surface appears to be an informal vote a formal vote "if the intention of the voter is clear".
My lawyer daughter told me that if you numbered the boxes correctly and then covered the rest of the ballot paper with pencil sketches of dicks and balls, the vote is still a formal vote.
Those who played Senate Lotto under the line will be a complete and utter nightmare to count.
And it'd so easy to forget the big swag of WA senate votes that simply vanished into thin air, never to be seen again, at the last election, which forced the High Court to instruct that the whole schmeozzle be re-run again.
In the small matter of buying federal votes for cash or anything else you want in the United States of America, it still remains legal.
It's nothing new of course -- here's a good one on how folks have been playing electoral hanky-panky with the Miracle of Democracy since way, way before the Year Dot:

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/power-to-the-people-2/


(originally published 04-07-16)