The Tally Room

Today I'm announcing a new project, one I haven't done before and was quite a bit of work. I have prepared profiles of the 16 most populous councils in Victoria. I'm hoping this will be the first instalment and I can do some or all...

The Victorian Electoral Matters Committee has today published their report into the last Victorian state election. While the report covers a number of matters, the main point of interest is that the committee has clearly endorsed reform to the Legislative Council electoral system, which would...

Ben is joined by Ferran Martinez i Coma from Griffith University to discuss his research on how election campaigning differs in Spain in districts electing odd or even numbers of representatives. We end up discussing more broadly the unsual impacts odd- and even-numbered district magnitudes...

Objections to the federal redistribution proposals for Western Australia and Victoria were published last week. Objections to the NSW proposal close this Friday. The Victorian objections were dominated by a large number of simple objections in opposition to the abolition of Higgins. North Sydney MP...

Ben is joined by Murray Goot to discuss the two-party-preferred vote: the history of the metric, how it is used today, how it influences how we think about our party system, and whether it still works in the more complex party system we have...

Today is two months out from the Northern Territory election on August 24, so I thought it was about time to release the election guide for everyone to read. You can find the guide here. There's profiles for all 25 electorates, with results tables and...

8:11pm - I haven't bothered to pay too much attention, but with most booths reported now the Nationals primary is down to just under 65%. An easy win, so I won't be updating any further. 6:40pm - With ten booths reporting, the Nationals are on...

Ben is joined by William Bowe from the Poll Bludger to discuss the federal redistribution proposals for New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. We discuss the process, what has been proposed, the political impact of those proposals and how it might affect preselections,...

Former NSW treasurer Matt Kean has chosen today, NSW budget day, to announce that he will be retiring from state politics, thus triggering a by-election for his seat of Hornsby. He has also said that he won't run for federal politics, dismissing speculation about a...

One of the interesting changes in the NSW redistribution proposal was the decisive shift of Hume towards Sydney. Looking at the proposed boundaries for the seat, I realised that they look quite similar to the boundaries of a seat that I was familiar with almost...