The State of the Senate

Remarkably, the result in the Senate is much more clear-cut than the result in the House of Representatives. The Greens are on track to win a Senate seat in all six states, giving them a total of nine seats. This clean sweep is a feat...

The State of the House

At the moment, it appears that the Coalition parties have won or are ahead in 73 seats, Labor in 72, Independents in four, and the Greens in one. It appears that five seats are yet to be decided. In the Hobart seat of Denison, former...

Moving forward

So after over 24 hours of my blog being out of action, we have returned. It appears that there was a major problem with the server used by my hosting company, and it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the immense amount...

One day to go: election predictions

Ever since I started this blog, I've had a tradition of making last-minute predictions of election results, recklessly making predictions about how individual seats would fall. I've quickly done one for tomorrow's federal election. I notice it's quite similar to William Bowe's over at Poll...

3 days to go: a close election?

Over the last few days, speculation over this Saturday's election has turned to the prospect of a hung parliament. While Julia Gillard has generally led in the last few polls, the picture is unclear, with the ALP suffering swings in New South Wales and...

10 days to go: Senate poll strong for Greens

Roy Morgan has released their first polling of the Senate race, showing a very strong vote for the Greens. The poll shows the ALP on 40%, the Coalition on 36%, and the Greens on 15.5%. On a state level, the Greens are polling strongly in...

12 days to go: former leader edition

Following a few days of campaign cameos by John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Mark Latham, Malcolm Fraser and John Hewson, two new polls today both have the ALP with slim leads. The Newspoll in the Australian has the ALP back to an election-winning lead with 52%...

Day 19: Below the line voting insurance

Since the Group Voting Tickets were announced on Sunday, there has been wide-ranging discussions about how people can vote below the line. There has been a campaign for Victorian voters to put Stephen Conroy last, and a group has set up a website that...

Day 17: Group voting tickets released

The AEC yesterday released the preference orders determined by political parties running in the Senate, which will be used to distribute above-the-line preferences, and determine Senate results in a difficult-to-understand process. William Bowe at the Poll Bludger has posted simplified versions of the tickets, and...

Day 15: Candidates announced

The declaration of nominations took place at midday yesterday at local electoral offices all over Australia. It took most of the day before lists of candidates appeared on the AEC website. There has been a marked reduction in the numbers of candidates standing. The AEC...