I am writing this post in order to help voters, new, infrequent and regular, in this federal election. I would like to state that I am not stating this in any official capacity, but to the best of my knowledge what I am writing is accurate.
One of the issues that comes around every cycle is when exactly a ballot should be disqualified: To see exactly how our laws are phrased you should consult
Article V of the Constitution and
The Unified Electoral Code in which the vast bulk of our electoral law is now contained.
I've participated in administering elections before and I have to say I didn't enjoy having to disqualify votes - the rules are fairly straight forward and for the most part are common sense.
My advice to voters in keeping your ballot valid is as follows:
- Ensure that you know which State you are registered in. If you do not know, an up to date list of registrations can be consulted here. Ensure that you then vote in the races actually relevant to your State. You do not need to worry about the state denoted in your avatar thanks to a constitutional change.
- Read the ballot instructions - they may well tell you things I've missed here.
- Check your ballot before you post it - make sure that it is clear which candidates (or tickets) you are voting for in which races.
- When voting in the Presidential election, be sure to type in the names of both members of the ticket. This is not necessarily a legal requirement, though it will undoubtedly avoid confusion.
- There is a prohibition on campaigning in the voting booth (signature and username excepted) - do not post anything that might be vaguely construed as campaigning. A recent Court case in the Southeast raises the possibility that even the smallest unnecessary comments might be construed as campaigning.
- Once you have voted, do not edit or delete your ballot under any circumstances.
Even if you notice some mistake in your ballot, you should not edit it or try to replace it. The likelihood is that the vote will still be counted regardless of the mistake; If you edit or replace it, it will not be counted.
One of the other oft-seen features of our electoral system is the strong capacity for tactical voting. With this election expected to be tight, this feature will undoubtedly repeat itself. Those tactical voters out there do not need me to explain to them how to do it, but I will briefly run over a couple of the nuances of our electoral system:
In each round of IRV, we eliminate the bottom placed candidate - however, there is always a possibility that there is a tie for last place. This tie will then be broken in the following way: All the preferences that the candidate has received (whether first, second, third or even twentieth preference) will be added up, the candidate with the least number of preferences is then eliminated. This adds an element of approval to our voting system - therefore, I would say this - Do not preference anybody, however lowly you do place them, if you have no desire to see them elected, that preference can only help them, it can never hinder them.
Another of the oft-seen tactics on the part of candidates is to start desperately contacting voters in the dying hours of an election in an attempt to get just one last push in order to win. I've seen it in from many candidates down the months, and I'm sure this election won't be too different even though I wish it were.
My only piece of advice to candidates is to check whether the voter you are contacting actually meets the activity requirements. It is a waste of your time to bring in a vote that won't count for anything, and it ultimately hurts Atlasia to have the continuing presence of dead wood on the voter rolls.
