Do you vote strictly party lines and why?

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

Never mind

 

[Arwon]

I can't recall ever not voting for the Greens as my first preference in local, state or commonwealth elections, and I've always preferenced Labor over the Liberals where the voting system has forced me to choose (in NSW state elections it doesn't, and I've withheld my preference on 2 occasions including a by-election which was just Labor vs Green anyway).

I can imagine circumstances where I'd preference a Liberal Party candidate over a Labor one, but that Liberal Party would be a quite different one to the one which currently exists.

I would also consider giving a first preference to appealling independents or microparties.

As for why I always vote Green, I want the Greens to be stronger, to drag the political conversation leftwards, to hold the balance of power in the Senate, and so forth. I'm also a member of the ACT Greens these days. I agree with the Greens on much more than I do with either the Labor Party or the Liberal Party.

I don't actively disagree with Labor that much, and when I do it's for the same reasons a lot of Labor Left people also disagree with the Labor Party these days. Luckily the preference system means I don't have to vote for the major party I prefer in order to avoid giving advantage to the other major party.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I can't recall ever not voting for the Greens as my first preference in local, state or commonwealth elections, and I've always preferenced Labor over the Liberals where the voting system has forced me to choose (in NSW state elections it doesn't, and I've withheld my preference on 2 occasions including a by-election which was just Labor vs Green anyway).

I can imagine circumstances where I'd preference a Liberal Party candidate over a Labor one, but that Liberal Party would be a quite different one to the one which currently exists.

I would also consider giving a first preference to appealling independents or microparties.

As for why I always vote Green, I want the Greens to be stronger, to drag the political conversation leftwards, to hold the balance of power in the Senate, and so forth. I'm also a member of the ACT Greens these days. I agree with the Greens on much more than I do with either the Labor Party or the Liberal Party.

I don't actively disagree with Labor that much, and when I do it's for the same reasons a lot of Labor Left people also disagree with the Labor Party these days. Luckily the preference system means I don't have to vote for the major party I prefer in order to avoid giving advantage to the other major party.

I may be entirely mistaken, but I thought NSW state was a territory and not a state? Do the territories of Australia have representation or is it like Washington DC and Puerto Rico where the residents get a token, non-voting representative?

Also, does your preference system work the way where you vote for your first, second and third choices and they each get points accordingly?

 

[WindFish]

I voted for Democrats in the past but in my 37 years of voting, both parties have drifted so far to the left that I see the choice as basically being in the primary between a liberal Republican and a moderate Republican. Only since 2010 have real conservative Republicans come back on the ballots and of course I will support them.

Both parties have drifted to the left?, got a source on that son?

Only a personal appearance by God and a firm direct order from Him would ever get me to vote for another Democrat, because the Democrats are wrong.

What if god doesn't exist?

In my mind, pols like Romney represent what the Democratic party used to be. Basically, I can't detect rational thought or speech emanating from the Democrats anymore.

No he doesn't.

 

[Arwon]

I may be entirely mistaken, but I thought NSW state was a territory and not a state? Do the territories of Australia have representation or is it like Washington DC and Puerto Rico where the residents get a token, non-voting representative?

Also, does your preference system work the way where you vote for your first, second and third choices and they each get points accordingly?

New South Wales is a state, one of six. It is actually the biggest and has about a third of the House of Representatives parliamentarians. Each state also has twelve Senators.

We also have two territories, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory. Both have House of Reps members roughly equal with population, ie two. They also have two Senators.

The constitution mandates a minimum five House of Reps seats per state and equal senators for the 6 original states. Those provisions don't apply to territories so in contrast to ACT and NT you get Tasmania having 5 MPs and 12 senators despite having a small population too.

Preferencing in House of Reps votes works as an instant run off. We number every box. If nobody gets 50% of the 1 votes they eliminate the lowest-vote candidate and redistribute those votes by their 2. That keeps going until someone has a majority of the vote. So we refer to a candidate's Primary Vote of first preferences, and then the Two Party Preferred which indicates the balance between the top two candidates after preference distribution.

So rather than a points system my vote can be seen to transfer rather than being wasted because everyone has a say about all candidates. So even after the Green is eliminated from the count, my vote still goes into the Labor pile. Or whatever.

 

[caketastydelish]

I would never vote on party lines. I can't imagine why anyone would do such a thing.

 

[ZeletDude]

When I can vote, I think I'd vote mainly Democrat just because most Republican candidates are too right for me, though if they were a better candidate I wouldn't have too much trouble voting for them.

 

[madviking]

So I'd like to know:

1) Do you vote along strictly party lines?

2) Why or why not?

3) If you do, what about our political system and/or political parties would have to change to get you to not vote along party lines?

1. Strictly, no. Incidentally, yes.

2. I'm a social issues voter. Only one of the two main parties has progressive stances on social issues.

3. Having more parties.

 

[squadbroken]

I don't vote for a specific party but I'll never vote for the miserable Tories unless it somehow comes down to a choice between them and, say, an outright fascist party.

 

[cybrxkhan]

When I can vote, I think I'd vote mainly Democrat just because most Republican candidates are too right for me, though if they were a better candidate I wouldn't have too much trouble voting for them.

Same here.


Me and my dad are in terms of voting the same. On paper we'd look like we're voting for party lines in favor of the Dems, but that's really because we dislike them less than the Republicans. Since I'm more "moderate" than my dad (whatever that means) I'm more willing to vote for Republicans, but I'm just very much not too fond of the Tea Party folks.

 

[downtown]

I would never vote on party lines. I can't imagine why anyone would do such a thing.

How well do you know your village council candidates, or the county supervisor, etc? Party labels help people decide. Even the hardest core political junkie doesn't know a ton about every little local office.

 

[azzaman333]

I vote for the party which I believe best represents my views, and structure my preferences based on who I hate least.

 

[Camikaze]

I vote along party lines, because that's essentially what the system demands. An individual has never been strong enough to change my vote either way. That's just based off one federal election (Greens, Labor, Liberal) and one state election (Greens, Liberal, Labor), but even at the local election coming up, where individual personalities are more important, I'm unlikely to go beyond looking at the party (Labor, Liberal). There's not much point in doing so. I have preferenced individuals lower because I particularly dislike them, but I feel no need to actually like my representatives.

I do vote below the line in Upper House elections, though, if that counts as not voting strictly along party lines. I also don't follow 'how to vote' cards.

 

[Quackers]

I remember voting in the alternative vote referendum last year i think. I got into the booth and i had realised they had given me two voting slips - on examination it turned out the second mystery slip was for the local council elections. It only had 3 options, Labour, Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.
As I hadn't given thought to any of the local issues and to any of the powers they had I had to think quickly about who I should vote for. My first thought was to go for Labour as my area was strongly conservative and I thought they deserved some opposition, alas i couldn't bring myself to vote for such a toxic, odious, nasty little party like Labour and the history of injustices they had inflicted on the British people in recent years - these thoughts turned the bad taste in my mouth to bitterness. In that moment I couldn't bring myself to mark an X to Labour. So the remaining two parties were the Tories and the Liberal Democrats. The LDs are just a joke of British politics so I again could not bring myself to put my vote behind them. That left me with the Tories and as much as I have disputes with their policies and David Cameron; their quite disgusting acted out "tough stance" on Europe and other horrors - i grossly put an X by that party. After that, I have not been the same again. Every day since voting for the tories in a local council my soul has slowly been chipped away, eating away at my UKIPian heart.

 

[WindFish]

I don't vote along party lines, I vote for who fits my beliefs the most.

No British party can truly fit my beliefs which is annoying but I can never vote Tories because of the the history of injustices they had inflicted on the British people in recent years - these thoughts turned the bad taste in my mouth to bitterness.

 

[vypernight]

The reason I'm an Independent is I tend to look at the specific people, instead of their particular party and have no problem voting for both sides and those of other parties if I agree with them.

However, this year I'm leaning more to the left because I'm so sick of the GOP's talk about anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-Christian*, anti-regulation (which seems to be their BIG ANSWER to saving the economy), taxing the poor (and forgetting people with no money don't buy anything), etc.

*For the record, I'm not anti-Christian. I was referring to those in the GOP who think their version of Christianity is the only real religion and try to push it on others. You're allowed to follow your faith, but stop pushing your values on others!