click or touch here to see a video about this

If you vote as per the directions given by the Australian Electoral Commission, you are wasting your vote unless:

1. You no, for certain, how the person you vote for will vote on all the known issues that are a concern to you
2. The person you vote for contacts you and asks you, your opinion, on issues you previous did not no about.
3. You accept that as the person you vote for represents all those in ther electorate it is impossible for that person to vote on any one issue the way you want then to.
4. You no, if the person you vote for is a member of a political party, weather they vote on party lines or what they have told you how they will vote, on a particular issue.
5. You are willing to compromise on multiple issues. For example one candidate could be promising to reduce taxes by reducing spending with another promising to increase spending on health and education. But you want taxes to not decrease but want less spent on defense and more spent on health and education. Your decision has to be a compromise.

Because in Australia since 1901 we have had a political system, that is called representative democracy.

In a representative democracy the people do not get to decide on particular issues. Instead the people have to vote for a representative who then votes on particular issues on their behalf.

Issues can be practically anything. Like should children be given milk at school. How much is to be spent on defense. Weather Australian is involved in a war. What Tax rates should be and how much money is spent on particular items. And of course what laws ther should be, and to a certain extent how the political system operates,including the extent of your involvement.

The elected representative votes in the House of Representatives either for or against a motion, which is basically an issue.

Because of the Australian Constitution.

It is a document that was drafted between 1891 and 1898 by people that are no longer alive, ratified on 6 July 1900 and became effective on ,1 January 1901. Over 121 years ago.

1. Aircraft.
2. Mass ownership of Motor cars
3. Weapons of mass destruction
4. Television
5. Computers
6. The internet
7. An Australian population of about 26 million
8. A world population of about 8 billion.

You only have to read the initial Australian Constitution to see how it is not appropriate for a modern society.

The Australian constitution can and has been changed. It requires what is called a referendum.

This is where people can vote on an issue. But only on issues involving the constitution itself.

Ther are 2 major problems when trying to change the constitution.

The first is that generally, only parliament can put forward motions for changes to the constitution. Not the people.

The second is that for a motion to change the constitution to be successful, it has to have the majority of the Australian electorate voting for it as well as the the majority electors in the majority of States

Because of this, of the 44 Referendum issues only 8 have been successful.

An alternative to representative democracy is Direct Democracy.

This is basically what a referendum is except that any issue can be voted on. Not just issues that deal with the constitution. Voter's vote for or against a particular issue.

Only one other country in the world has something like a direct democracy. That is Switzerland.

Theoretically it would be possible to change Australia to a Direct Democracy by having numerious referendums to change the multiple parts of the constitution.

The parliament, the politicians, are not likely to likely to allow that situation to happen such that it diminishes or eliminates ther power and control

The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 , A law in the UK gave the Australian constitution authority. But what gave that Law authority to make the Australian Constitution? And what gave that the authority to make that? And so forth and so on.

The only thing that gives law authority is aggregate faith of the populous. That is the majority of people have faith in laws.

As an example if a ridiculous law was made, like everybody had to report to the local police station everyday, because the majority of people would not have faith in such a law it would not be enforceable and so be ineffectual.

Ther are many things that many people are unhappy with about government because they have lost faith in it. SO….

As I said earlier voting the required way is actually a wasted vote, based on the previous criteria,

But if you vote informal, it is not a waste of vote. Because by doing so you are basically saying that the current political system is not working and you wish it to be changed. This can be done by voting informal. Voting informal, is actually a horrible word for describing that you may wish to vote on the issues yourself and that you don't want someone else to represent you. Voting informal means that you haven't voted according to the rules for voting, as directed by the parliament. Those that are supposed to represent you.

It is the parliament that has made the laws about, what and who, decides if a vote is informal or not.

An example of voting informal, could be, drawing an additional box on the voting paper, with your name against it, putting the number one in that box, without putting anything else against anybody else's name. Or even puting other assendind numbers against the other candidates.

I'm not sure if that is an informal vote. I will discuss that later.

By putting you own name on the voting paper, you're voting for yourself. Saying you don't want anybody else to represent you. That you want to make decisions yourself.

Of course there are many other ways of voting informal.

To account for all the voting papers and calculte the Informality rate, informal votes are counted and shown on the results of each election. From the Australian Electral Commission:

“Informal votes are not counted in the election of a candidate. Informality rate The proportion of ballot papers not marked according to the rules of the election (and cannot therefore be counted towards the election)”.

The reasons that a voting paper is declared informal is not recorded. Just as the reason for a formal vote being against a particular candidate is not recorded.

The proof that informal votes are counted is show in the statistics of every election since at least since 1925.

It turns out that the AEC publish ther own study on the analysis of informal votes. Because ther is no requirement for voters to say if they are deliberately voting informal its not fully known how many informal votes are deliberate or are mistakes. Perhaps a good reason to indicate so on your voting paper.

A study of informal votes was done that showed that:

“Between 2004–2016, 32% of electorates reported more informal votes than votes in the margin between the winner and runner-up”.

Considering that in recent elections, a party could be in or out of power by a margin of only a few seats, this could indicate that informal votes are not a wasted vote, but are an indication of the people's true desire for direct democracy.

As an AEC study attempted to make a destination between informal votes that could have been a mistake and those that appeared to be that the voter did not wish to vote for any of the candidates, if you do make a deliberate informal vote, it could be worthwhile writing the reason you vote informal on the voting paper.

A Google search will show a number of articles showing popular suppost for direct democracy as well as the pros and cons for it.

When Should the People Decide? Public Support for Direct Democracy in Australia

Popular Support for Direct Democracy

Direct Democracy International IDEAS

Australia had a plebiscite on gay marriage in 2017

So if You no, for certain, how the person you vote for will vote on all the known and future issues,You accept that its impossible for that person to please everyone, but may please ther party before you,and you are willing to Compromise.

THEN vote the way they have told you to vote

BUT. Otherwise vote informal, with your written reasons. Because it will NOT be a wasted vote.

As I read the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 if you put an additional box on it with your name against it with the number one in the box and then number all the other boxes from 2 onwards that should count as a formal vote. However if it is counted as a formal vote, your preferences will still be distributed to candidates that you may not want to be elected.

The next issue is the word Candidate. I cant see anywhere it sais you cant write your own name as a candidate on the ballot paper. Ther are many sections of the ACT that stipulate who can or cannot be a candidate and the requirements for being a candidate, but it assumes that only valid candidates can be on the ballot paper because the AEC produce them.

The next issue would be writing your own name on the ballot paper

Thet is not allowed to be anything on the ballot paper that identifies who voted. As you could write any bodies name on the voting paper it is not known by the person reading it if it is your name on it or not.

“240 Marking of votes in House of Representatives election (1) In a House of Representatives election a person shall mark his or her vote on the ballot paper by: (a) writing the number 1 in the square opposite the name of the candidate for whom the person votes as his or her first preference; and (b) writing the numbers 2, 3, 4 (and so on, as the case requires) in the squares opposite the names of all the remaining candidates so as to indicate the order of the person’s preference for them. (2) The numbers referred to in paragraph (1)(b) are to be consecutive numbers, without the repetition of any number.”

“268 Informal ballot papers (1) A ballot paper shall (except as otherwise provided by section 239, and by the regulations relating to voting by post) be informal if: (a) subject to subsection (2), it is not authenticated by the initials of the presiding officer, a polling official, or a voting officer (within the meaning of Division 3 of Part XVA), or by the presence of the official mark; (b) subject to sections 268A and 269, in a Senate election, it has no vote indicated on it, or it does not indicate the voter’s first preference for 1 candidate and then consecutively number at least 11 other candidates in the order of his or her preference; © in a House of Representatives election, it has no vote indicated on it, or it does not indicate the voter’s first preference for 1 candidate and an order of preference for all the remaining candidates: Provided that, where the voter has indicated a first preference for 1 candidate and an order of preference for all the remaining candidates except 1 and the square corresponding with the name of that candidate has been left blank, it shall be deemed that the voter’s preference for that candidate is the voter’s last and that accordingly the voter has indicated an order of preference for all the candidates: Provided further that, where there are 2 candidates only and the voter has indicated his or her vote by placing the figure 1 in the square corresponding with the name of 1 candidate and has left the other square blank or placed a figure other than 2 in it, the voter shall be deemed to have indicated an order of preference for all the candidates; (d) it has upon it any mark or writing (not authorized by this Act or the regulations to be put upon it) by which, in the opinion of the Divisional Returning Officer, the voter can be identified: Provided that paragraph (d) shall not apply to any mark or writing placed upon the ballot paper by an officer, notwithstanding that the placing of the mark or writing upon the ballot paper is a contravention of this Act; or (e) in the case of an absent vote—the ballot paper is not contained in an envelope bearing a declaration made by the elector under subsection 222(1) or (1A). (2) A ballot paper to which paragraph (1)(a) applies shall not be informal by virtue of that paragraph if the Divisional Returning Officer responsible for considering the question of the formality of the ballot paper is satisfied that it is an authentic ballot paper on which a voter has marked a vote and the officer has endorsed the ballot paper with the words ‘I am satisfied that this ballot paper is an authentic ballot paper on which a voter has marked a vote.’. (3) A ballot paper shall not be informal for any reason other than the reasons specified in this section, but shall be given effect to according to the voter’s intention so far as that intention is clear.