Postal vote oddity...

By ‘the left’ I assume you mean The Greens? Cos I’ve already got one from Labor’s Annette Ellis, and my friend over the border in Struggle-Town has already got one from Mr Mustache, Mike Kelly… I think the only reason the Greens and Democrats don’t do it is purely pragmatic – they don’t have any pennies to spare! I imagine it’s quite expensive to mail something to every house in Australia…

Got mine today. No big deal, they have been sending one at each of the last elections – which makes me wonder if it might be one of those privileges of incumbency because you don’t (or at least I don’t) seem to get them from the left.

When you all say “bin” I trust you ALL meant the recycling bin. Best not to totally waste the resource.

“What’s important to you? The delivery method or the message?”

Actually, both. When the delivery method involves trickery, then my immediate (& I believe logical) suspicion is that the message contains the same.

I actually haven’t seen this one, so can’t comment on it itself. However, the one I mentioned earlier (from a “concerned resident”) during the last election was completely & utterly dishonest. I (as many others who received it were) was disgusted.

If this sort of thing isn’t important to you, then fine. Don’t “FFS” me though FFS!

“don’t you think that Senator Gaz knew and probably in fact HOPED that people would realise that?”

Ummmm, sure. If that’s what you want to believe.

I’m of the opinion that it’s indicitive of their nature. Like perhaps making up stories of refugees throwing their kids overboard, that sort of thing.

So I gues Col Mike Kelly is mean and tricky like that too (see ant 17 October@9:10pm).

At least the Greens and their Australian Conservation friends don’t use any deliberately tricky means to accomplish anything.

Don’t cry to me, I’m just putting the facts out there.

Caf – that makes it even worse!!!

What’s the worse that could happen? They fill out this official looking form that happened to have come from the Liberal Party, and they end up with a non-partisan ACTUAL official ballot courtesy of the AEC.

FFS.

The form distributed wasn’t the ballot itself, it was an application for a postal vote (if you fill it out and send it back, then you get sent out the actual ballot paper).

Maelinar, I’m not sure what obscure style guide you got that one out of. I’ve never heard it before. Regardless, it was following a figure, so definitely no capital letter!

Yeah, and where you need to fill in the person you’re voting for you don’t think it will occur to them that this bit is up to them?

Even if the envelope comes from party A, shouldn’t it occur to even the lowest common denominator that the vote lies with them?

I dunno – those with poor English, or oldies might be confused and think they have to fill out this official looking thing?

What’s important to you? The delivery method or the message?

Any politician is going to do what they have to to get their message to the people in a way that doesn’t violate AEC regulations.

If you disagree with the message, fine. But refusing to vote for someone because you live in a fantasy land where incumbent mail outs are construed as “mean, tricky, and deliberately subtie” is nothing short of petulant.

Everyone here that has been offended by the mailouts is obviously smart enough to see that it is a partisan mailout – don’t you think that Senator Gaz knew and probably in fact HOPED that people would realise that?

Postal votes: Do you really think someone who doesn’t support the liberals is going to accidentally vote for the libs based on the supposed tricky mailout?

FFS.

We got ours the other day, i duly opened it to read the contents only to send it straight to the bin whilst shaking my head at a mean,tricky, and deliberately subtle way to catch the unwary.

I don’t care which side sent it, this one was obviously thought out to deceive and makes the designer less likely to receive our vote.

Nice one idiot!

“I’m of the opinion that it’s indicitive of their nature. Like perhaps making up stories of refugees throwing their kids overboard, that sort of thing.”

Yeah that story is almost as funny as the one about the Royal Australian Navy and Australian Federal Police conspiring to murder all those people on the SIEV-X.

“I’m not going to mortgage the nation based on the fact that I got something in the mail.”

I’m of the opinion that it’s indicitive of their nature. Like perhaps making up stories of refugees throwing their kids overboard, that sort of thing.

If idiots are so dumb as to open a letter and read it, and then in some way have that lock them in where their brain shuts down, then well what can I say? Should no politician ever be able to say anything in public (actually that’s not a bad idea).

I threw mine in the bin but from what I understand from the radio, the PVA goes to the Liberals or ALP, but then the AEC ballot goes to you. The parties don’t touch it (now THAT would be a problem).

Either way, nothing like this would affect my vote either way. I’m not going to mortgage the nation based on the fact that I got something in the mail.

“So anything that came out from the invisible Bob McMullen would affect your vote in the same way?”

Well, I’ve not seen this manner of material from Bob or the ALP generally. Mind you, I never said he’d get my vote in any case.

For the record, as long as the Libs emply these tactics, I will NEVER give them my vote. I hope you take that on-board “Gaz”.

So anything that came out from the invisible Bob McMullen would affect your vote in the same way?

“sadly it seems a good chunk of people these days are pretty big idiots”

You’ve hit the nail on the head. I’m not going to be fooled by this stuff, Joe Public from Bogancentral quite likely will be though. His vote counts just the same as mine does. This is why I believe it’s dirty politics.

“I am very careful to ensure that any material sent out in my name complies fully with the Electoral Act and is not designed to mislead.”

I still recall during the lead up to the last Federal election receiving a letter from a “concerned resident” in our suburb. This letter was *almost* obviously pro Liberal advertising, although wasn’t clearly identified as such in any way. A brief investigation showed that the “concerned resident” was actually just the closest Liberal member to our house. Sounds like this letter is another example of the same. If this rott fits into AEC guidelines, then the guidelines NEED to be changed as they are obviously designed to mislead, contrary to your claim above. For the record, as long as the Libs emply these tactics, I will NEVER give them my vote. I hope you take that on-board “Gaz”.

There we go, flashmob registration.

Gayer than Freddy Mercury…

I have no problem with this kind of thing – it’s not like you are being forced to vote for the Liberals if you choose to fill out the form!

What is wrong with everyone nowadays? We’ve had ‘everyone’ whinging recently that the evil Federal Govt hasn’t given them enough time to register to vote once the election was called, when it’s been pretty obvious for at least six months that an election was probably going to occur in November this year!!!!

If young idiots can organise themselves in a few mins to go and sing The Carpenters “Close to You” in the Canberra Centre for a really ‘cool’ stunt, then why aren’t they able to get off their arses and register to vote well before the cut off time?

Indeed.

wondering why on earth anyone would use a capital letter for Trillion when it is not at the start of a sentence. – numbers when used in a sentence are meant to have a capital starting them off, as in a Hundred million thousand people became Soylent Green on Friday.

On topic, I think it safe to assume that this is a cunning tactic used to engage the majority of voters who, I will also presume, are as thick as several planks nailed together – not a rare observation as many threads on this website will confirm.

My concern, albeit I’m considering this from a foreign perspective, is that offering people the opportunity to place a postal vote when they are legitimately able to vote on the day can cause their vote to be annulled.

Again, I am unaware of the Australian regulations on proxy voting.

Standard electioneering!
You will get one from every party at every election. I think you will find that the actual form is the AEC standard.. or it wouldn’t be accepted by them of course 🙂

I got one for Fraser, but my only interest in it was wondering why on earth anyone would use a capital letter for Trillion when it is not at the start of a sentence.

I got one yesterday from Gary Nairn, and one today from Col. Mike Kelly!

My advice, as I offer for ALL junk jail (as is this junk from the Libs) is seal it up, mark it “unsolicited mail”, and “return to sender” and pop it into the mail box. The Liberals will have to pay for that delivery. And if you wanna be real clever and cost them even more postage, retrieve the postage-paid envelope they enclose in their propaganda (before sealing the envelope back up) and send it empty, as they have to pay for that too. Sick of the Libs and their “clean campaign in the ACT”. Give me a break Gary. You’re on the nose and on the way out.

Bring on Senator Tucker. She’s got Margot Kingston in town helping with the Greens campaign. Good one.

I got this letter along with the rest of my family and my fiancees family. It looks like most people got it. You’d have to be a pretty big idiot to not realise that it is from the Liberal Party but sadly it seems a good chunk of people these days are pretty big idiots so i wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more about this (I briefly heard them talking about it on the ABC, apparently Mike Kelty in Eden-Monaro has done it as well).

I’m not sure the AEC (I presume you meant AEC rather than AusPost) can prevent people making their own versions of their forms. Maybe if they copyrighted the forms? I’m not sure.

It looks like Australia Post are letting political parties advertise on the postal vote forms.

I don’t think this evidences any wrongdoing on behalf of the political parties concerned (I’m sure the Labor party does it too) but I don’t think it should be permitted.

Anything to do with official electoral institutions should be seen to be absolutely free from association with political parties.

Christ Ralph it’s just all black and white for you isn’t it?

yeah, the facts often are.

Christ Ralph it’s just all black and white for you isn’t it?

So you’re talking about a yellow envelope, with a symbol of the flag mast of Parliament House? This is the one isn’t it??

I don’t see the Australian Government crest on there, so I didn’t treat it as an official Australian Government document.

Treat it as a quasi IQ test.

yeah, i got one in fraser which had gary humphries and troy williams. it’s all legit aparently and no doubt we will get one from labour too.

I think it’s been pretty standard and legal for years for parties to offer postal vote assistance in this way. What seemed new (and dodgy) on the one we got this time around was that the envelope was deliberately designed to look like something official and non-partisan, to ensure you opened it up to find Gary’s propaganda letter. The good news is there is a reply paid envelope to the Canberra Liberals as part of the package, so if you have anything to say to them about their methods, put it in the envelope and send it back at their expense!

Hello,

I thought I would write in and clarify a few points as my office has received a number of inquiries on this very matter.

The letter which was sent out this week is intended to ensure that those who cannot make it to a polling booth on November 24 still get the chance to have their say about who will govern Australia for the next three years.

It does also include a message from myself and my fellow candidates – Natalie Colbert and Troy Williams – and as such falls under the provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

The Act requires that all political material bear an statement indicating who has authorised and printed it – this document fully complies with that requirement by featuring an authorisation statement on the middle page.

I am very careful to ensure that any material sent out in my name complies fully with the Electoral Act and is not designed to mislead. This is because I believe the ACT has a great tradition of fighting clean, intelligent election campaigns and I hope to see this continue over the coming weeks.

Cheers,
Gary

Gees simbo talk about huff and puff to hype up a conspiracy theory… all it is a standard postal vote application from the Liberals.

I suggest you put your tin foil hat back on and you will feel a lot safer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-foil_hat

I got one of those in Fraser too, and I’ve seen reports of the same from electorates interstate.

It’s definitely not an AEC mailout. It seems like it would have been paid for from the Senator’s provided funds for mailouts to their constituents (all MPs and Senators get this).