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Zeitpunkt              Nutzer    Delta   Tröts        TNR     Titel                     Version  maxTL
Sa 07.09.2024 00:01:05     9.904       0      584.044    59,0 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000
Fr 06.09.2024 00:01:07     9.904      -1      583.392    58,9 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000
Do 05.09.2024 00:01:07     9.905      +1      582.489    58,8 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000
Mi 04.09.2024 00:00:31     9.904      +2      581.775    58,7 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000
Di 03.09.2024 00:00:53     9.902      -1      581.023    58,7 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000
Mo 02.09.2024 00:01:13     9.903      +2      580.303    58,6 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000
So 01.09.2024 00:01:13     9.901      +1      579.468    58,5 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000
Sa 31.08.2024 00:01:07     9.900       0      578.928    58,5 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000
Fr 30.08.2024 00:01:08     9.900       0      578.187    58,4 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000
Do 29.08.2024 00:01:06     9.900       0      577.253    58,3 Climate Justice Social    4.2.1... 5.000

Sa 07.09.2024 05:31

You should be able to get one free article view from this site. I’ve included relevant extracts.

Depending which country you are in this might give you some ideas and explanation of some key ideas for a more robust democracy.

thesaturdaypaper.com.au/commen

How voting systems change outcomes

Barry Jones
7 September, 2024

The voting system and electoral redistributions in Australian Commonwealth elections are undoubtedly world’s best practice, especially for the House of Representatives, which determines the fate of governments.

Assertions that Australia’s democratic practice was a gracious gift from Britain for which we should be humbly grateful are delusional and misleading. Unlike Britain, Australian colonies never denied the vote to Catholics and Jews, but exclusion of First Nations people was unconscionable. (In four colonies they could vote if they were British subjects and found a polling booth – but how could that happen in practice?)

The secret ballot was pioneered in the Australian colonies and first conducted in Victoria in August–October 1856. Britain first used it in a general election in 1874.

Manhood suffrage followed in the mainland colonies in 1856–58; Tasmania not until 1896. Britain, by comparison, did not adopt full manhood suffrage until 1918, when, after declaring a commitment to democracy towards the end of World War I, it seemed timely to introduce it at home.

Women achieved the right to vote and to stand as federal candidates in 1902. South Australia (1895) and Western Australia (1899) had been earlier, but Victoria (1908) was rather late. New Zealand women could vote from 1893 but not run as candidates until 1919.

The United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada delayed female franchise to 1918 and the United States to 1920. Not until 1928 did British women have equal voting rights to men. Universal suffrage in the US dates, in practice, from the Voting Rights Act of 1965, just a century after the Civil War ended.

The federal election of December 13, 1919, was the first with a preferential voting system to replace “first past the post”. With this approach, every MP elected could claim to have been supported by 50-per-cent-plus-1 of voters, expressed either by a primary vote or a “preferential vote” from a defeated candidate.

Preferential voting was introduced by the Nationalist Party government led by Prime Minister William Morris Hughes (a defector from the ALP) under pressure from rural forces which soon became the Country Party (now called the Nationals). By 1923 there were enough Country Party MPs to force Hughes out, and replace him with Stanley Melbourne Bruce.

Compulsory registration and turning up to vote was adopted in Australia in 1924.

Preferential voting was originally regarded as an anti-Labor strategy, so that rural voters could vote for Country Party candidates confident that if he ran third his preference would help to elect a Nationalist. Similarly, anti-Labor voters in cities and towns could give a second preference to the Country Party, even through gritted teeth.

In the 2022 federal election, voter turnout was 89.8 per cent, with an informal vote of 5.1 per cent. There was easy access to pre-polling, postal and absentee votes. In our nearest neighbour, New Zealand, turnout at its 2023 election was 78 per cent.

I am an enthusiast for the principle of compulsory registration and turning up to vote. In the secrecy of a polling booth, people are free to vote or to write “Bullshit” on the voting paper. There are, however, two negatives in compulsion: it is very bad for referendums, where “don’t knows” and “don’t cares” give an inbuilt advantage to the “No” case; and in elections it inhibits direct community engagement to get out the vote. This last point depresses party membership, increasing the power of factions and tribal fiefdoms.

In May 2011, the UK held one of its rare referendums, on the issue of voting systems, the question being: “At present, the UK uses the ‘first past the post’ system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the ‘alternative vote’ system be used instead?”

In the British referendum about changing from “first past the post” voting, only 42 per cent of electors turned up to cast a vote. “No” won on 68 per cent and “Yes” polled 32 per cent.

Polling day in the US is on a Tuesday, a public holiday in 15 states, and in the UK it is on Thursday. There are historic reasons for both – but voting on a working day can be used to suppress or at least discourage voter turnout, where turning up to vote is not compulsory, and especially if the weather is bad.

The Commonwealth has had Saturday voting since 1903, a practice begun in South Australia in 1896. Along with the democracy sausage, it retains a mildly celebratory quality, and is a fairer system.

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