In short:

A high number of informal votes in a rural NSW electorate with a record number of candidates has been labelled "shameful" by the region's MP.

By May 6 more than 11,000 informal votes had been recorded in the Riverina electorate, accounting for more than 10 per cent of the voter turnout.

What's next?

Riverina MP Michael McCormack and political scientist Dominic O'Sullivan say the voting system should be reformed.

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[–] eureka@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

My understanding is that an informal vote IS a valid way of voting.

An intentional informal vote is a valid form of political expression. I think it's stupid idealism, and it's not a valid vote, but it's valid as political expression. Like you mentioned, there are also accidental informal votes, like [1, 2, 3, 1, 4] or [1, , , , ].

(A donkey vote, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], is a valid vote)

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 13 hours ago

I wish we could get data on this, but it is unfortunately so hard to know which is which, so the AEC doesn't even try. Is the person who numbered all boxes apart from two intending to vote informally? Did they make a mistake in filling out their ballot? Did they misunderstand how it works? What about the person who filled out a Senate ballot above the line completely correctly, but also wrote "1" next to like 8 different candidates below the line?

[–] Tenderizer@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

More people should spoil their ballot instead of doing the donkey vote. If they want to express disinterest, the former is better than the latter.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

Donkey votes can be a valid vote politically, depending on the draw and the individual's political beliefs. I gave what could be considered a donkey vote in the 2024 Qld state election. ("Could be considered" because I've seen one definition that says either [1, 2, 3, 4] or [4, 3, 2, 1] can be called a donkey vote, and the latter is what I did.) It just so happened that in my electorate, candidates were drawn in order from most conservative to most progressive.