The Tally Room

Prior to the 2021 NSW council elections, I analysed the population trends in another of Sydney councils which have been shouldering the bulk of Sydney's population growth. I wrote about Camden, Blacktown, a number of other councils, and an overall post. Now as we get...

Ben is joined by Professor Steffen Ganghof from the University of Potsdam to discuss his book Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism. Steffen discusses an alternative model of democracy he calls "semi-parliamentarism" which can gain the benefits of presidentialism in having a part of the legislature independent...

I've been using this quiet period between elections to get ready for the elections of 2024, and as part of that I have now published my guide to the 2024 Queensland state election. This will likely be the biggest election event of 2024, and the...

Ben is joined by former AEC official Michael Maley, who has just returned from a trip to Timor-Leste to help with the country's recent parliamentary election. Ben and Michael discuss the constitutional structure, electoral system and party system of Timor-Leste. We also discuss the...

New South Wales appears to be considering changes to rules around voting for the City of Sydney, replacing a special law passed a decade ago to expand the business vote in that council alone. Yet I would argue that this is not enough -...

There will be five elections held in 2024 that I am planning to profile in depth. I've now finished my first of those five guides. Queensland's local government elections will be held in March 2024. The City of Brisbane is of particular interest. It's the...

Ben is joined by Professor Matthew Shugart from UC Davis to discuss how the electoral system influences the party system. We discuss the effective number of parties measure, and the seat product model, which uses the size of the parliamentary assembly and the district...

Yet another by-election was triggered yesterday, in addition to the Fadden and Rockingham by-elections. The Victorian state seat of Warrandyte will be going back to the polls later this year after Ryan Smith announced his retirement. The Liberal Party holds Warrandyte by a 4.2% margin,...

There will be a state by-election coming up soon for the Western Australian seat of Rockingham. Rockingham is at the southern fringe of Perth, and has been held since 1996 by Mark McGowan. McGowan announced his resignation as premier and local member on Monday. McGowan won...

39 Victorian councils are currently undergoing reviews of their electoral structure - the number of councillors, number of councillors per ward and the exact boundaries of those wards. Those reviews are the conclusion of a process kicked off prior to the 2020 election, when...