The Tally Room

In my previous posts I examined the results of the Queensland 2012 election and what it means for the ALP to be so decisively defeated. The defeat of Labor by such a massive margin raises other questions about how well Queensland's electoral system represents the...

As of this morning, the result is Liberal National Party on 76 seats, the Labor Party on 6, Katter's Australian Party on 2, and two independents. This leaves three seats too close to call: Bulimba, Mackay and Yeerongpilly. At the moment the ALP is...

This was no ordinary election defeat. This was no ordinary landslide defeat. It is quite possibly the worst defeat of a major party at any state election in modern Australian political history. When you look at the voting figures, it is terrible, but not unprecedented....

As is tradition on this blog, I've put together my prediction of the results. I never put much stock in these - it's always very difficult to judge what will happen in individual seats. However I do consult the polls, the pendulum and try...

Last Wednesday, the ALP's sole City of Sydney councillor, Meredith Burgmann, announced a plan for the party to use an open primary to choose their candidate for Lord Mayor of Sydney. The following day, the Greens preselected Cr Irene Doutney as the party's lead candidate...

I've been putting work recently into producing new ward maps for the three east coast states that will have local government elections in 2012. The electoral commissions in Queensland and Victoria provide an easy-to-follow page on their website with all the information about ward boundaries...

Today Anna Bligh announced that the next Queensland state election will be held on March 24 2012. This is an unusually early announcement of the election date, which is due to a number of complicating factors. Bligh has stated that she had intended to call...

The US presidential primary system is a strange beast - the race opens with elections in a number of small states, a small proportion of delegates decided over an extended period, with the vast bulk of delegates not decided until a later date. Yet this...

Just in time for the end of the year, the Tally Room guide to the Queensland state election is now finished. Profiles have been written for all 89 seats, as well as a summary of the last century in Queensland state politics, a summary of...

US presidential primaries are unlike any other election in the world. You have a massive expensive race involving a large number of candidates, where the race often hinges on small states with their own peculiarities. It doesn't even have much resemblance to primaries for lower...