The system does not deliver the true will of the voters

By Diet Simon

I am enraged every time I face a ballot paper containing dozens of people I know nothing about but which I must number for my vote to be valid.

I am enraged every time these “preferences” forced on me like this help a party which is not the one I want and which in this election lost heavily.

The system is designed to have people make mistakes so that the big parties stay on top. It does not deliver the true will of the voters.

The true will of the voters (the so-called ‘primary votes’) this time would have delivered an Abbot government, much as I would have dreaded that.

We should all demand a change in the electoral system. I want to be able to give my ‘1’ to my choice among dozens of choices on the paper and for that to suffice.

My ‘1’ (or however many additional numbers I care to mark) should be my valid vote, with names left unmarked being irrelevant.

Out of the 182,379 people enrolled as voters in the Fairfax and Wide Bay electorates of the Sunshine Coast, 46,699 either did not vote or they cast duds.

That’s nearly every fourth person entitled to vote, not voting or voting invalidly.

I obviously haven’t done the sums for any other electorates but I dare say it must be the same trend in many places.

To me that is the most significant outcome of the election. What does it tell me?

That not all the 7,542 dud voters in our area meant to cast duds. That the ballot papers are too complicated.

It tells me also that people are too apathetic to exercise a right for which others are still dying around the world.

It tells me that people are so disgusted about the pollies that they’re not bothering to vote. And it tells me that’s the way the pollies prefer it.

I’ll take any bet that only a miniscule number, if any, of the 39,157 non-voters here will be fined.

So, how to get more involvement and an accurate measure of the people’s will?

Start by scrapping preferences, changing the ballot papers and making voting voluntary.

Dedicate a number of seats to Aborigines, which works successfully in several countries with minorities.

Then the no-shows would really put the wind up the pollies.