Fun with postal voting

I think I'm going to have done more research for this election than I have ever done before. It comes of having the ballot paper in front of me and steadily going through the names (this is on the Senate ticket, by the way).

And despite the research, I find that I'm voting much the same way as I always have.

I always vote below the line, and that's not changing. I always figure out my least-favourite candidates and take great joy in placing them last (although sometimes it's a bit of a struggle to work out who deserves to go last - and I have to admit that it's usually fairly party-based, since I don't put any effort into finding out the details about candidates who belong to certain parties). Then I think about the candidates I actually know about and agree with to at least some extent and number them from 1 down.

And so I work my way forwards and backwards until I have every box numbered, and every number that needs to be there in a box somewhere.

That's still basically my approach. Except this time, as I said, I'm doing more research than usual, since I don't have access to the usual election junk-mail. So I know a bit more about a few more of the candidates.

And I'm discovering that there are many more nutjobs than I realised.

I'm also finding that some of the parties with whose policies I actually agree haven't managed to get all their candidates' bios online. So, down in the preference list they go, too.

At least with those people, because of their party membership, I have some idea of what they stand for, and I'm willing to put them at the tail-end of the "candidates I feel comfortable voting for" section of my preferences.

But I'm sorry, if you're an independent and don't even have a website or blog (you can set one up for free, you know! And if you can't figure out how, ask your granddaughter for help!) or any other way I can find some tidbit of information about you, I'm going to class you with the nutjobs, who come after the "people I don't agree with but at least seem slightly sane". Just in case you are.

Why are these people running? How on earth do they expect people to vote for them? Is it just some kind of weird popularity contest among their friends? Are they hoping to somehow get over the line to get election funding and make money of of the election? What's going on?

On the upside of all of this: if I hadn't decide to go looking at all the candidates, I would never have found out about the guy who wants to re-establish "our" Privy Council.

heh.

Maybe I should write him an email and suggest that if he wants the BRITISH House of Lords to be the highest court which applies to him, he should move to the UK. I'm sure they can always use plumbers here.