Riverina is set to have one the highest recorded percentages of informal votes out of any electorate in the country. Photo: AEC Images.
The results are in for Riverina at the federal election – the Nationals came first, Labor second and ”informal” finished third.
Our electorate recorded one of the highest proportions of voters in Australia who either mistakenly or deliberately filled in their ballot papers incorrectly, meaning their vote was not counted. This ”informal” subcategory outnumbered the total votes received by minor parties like the Greens and One Nation and all the independents.
As of midday Tuesday, Riverina sat at 11,066 informal votes, according to the ABC’s election count, making up just over 10 per cent of the electorate’s total enrolled voters. This was more than double the national average of informal votes, which was around 5 per cent.
Re-elected Riverina MP Michael McCormack has called out those who ”wasted” their votes.
“The last time I looked, the informal vote was sitting at around 11,000. I mean, this is shameful, really,” Mr McCormack said.
“A look at the last local government elections here in Wagga, I think there were 6000 people who didn’t vote at all.
“I mean, there are 103,000 names on the Roll of Honour of the War Memorial, so that people get a free and fair vote.
”Those are the people, men and women, who went to war and died so that we could have a fair and free and democratic society. Anybody who wastes their vote needs to take a good, long, hard look at themselves.”
Michael McCormack is not happy about the high number of informal votes recorded in his electorate. Photo: File.
According to ABC election guru Antony Green, there are many reasons why people might vote informal. It could be they simply don’t care, or they may genuinely make a mistake. He pointed out that the difference between the NSW state voting and federal election voting could create confusion.
In NSW Lower House elections, you only have to number one box on your ballot paper. However, at federal elections, you must number every box. If you don’t, your vote is deemed invalid.
Mr Green said having many candidates on a ballot paper could cause problems for voters and increased the chances of making a mistake.
Mr McCormack acknowledged this could have been an issue in Riverina.
“Obviously, with 13 candidates, you will get a higher informal rate than normal because you have to fill out all 13 boxes,” he said.
“You have to fill out a number in every box and in sequential order, one through 13, in the order of your preference. But obviously, having a higher number of candidates, a record number of candidates, you will increase the informal vote.
“But people need to actually start looking at how they vote, and taking some care and interest in it.”
McCormack suggested that more should be done at schools to educate younger voters on the importance of voting and how to do so correctly.
“I do think we need to promote it more in schools,” he said.
“I do think we need to get it in our civics classes, we need to make a point of teaching children the difference between the various levels of government.
“But in saying that, people have never been better informed. We live in the information age. They’ve got so much at their fingertips.
“What does worry me is the misinformation, and even some candidates just spruiking stuff that just wasn’t right, spruiking stuff that they knew in their heart of hearts was lies and some of these people are actually representatives of people in public offices, and yet it still didn’t stop them from spreading lies.”
