MARK M ALDRIDGE - How do I vote in SA           a.userlink { color: #000000; } a.userlink:visited { color: #25120d; } a.userlink:hover { color: #25120d; } font[size="1"] { font-size:10px; } font[size="2"] { font-size:13px; } font[size="3"] { font-size:16px; } font[size="4"] { font-size:18px; } font[size="5"] { font-size:24px; } font[size="6"] { font-size:32px; } font[size="7"] { font-size:48px; } .GuestBookMessage { font-family: Times New Roman; color: #25120d; font-size: 13px; } .GuestBookMessageRow { font-family: Times New Roman; color: #25120d; font-size: 12px; } .GuestBookHeader { font-family: Times New Roman; color: #25120d; font-size: 12px; }                                                                                         People keep asking me how to Vote, I do not want to tell you who to vote for, but I will help you understand how it all works, so here goes.    Basics only;    In your local electorate you will recieve 2 ballot papers;  Will be for the Lower House, called the House of Assembly, which with in reason, will result in the choice of political party that will run our state.  It will have about 4 to 6 boxes on it with the candidates names adjacent, usually Labor, Liberal, Greens, Family First, an Independent, and maybe another minor player.   You have to mark a preference for all the Candidates, not my idea of democracy, but those who benefit from structural biases write the law.   If you like me, are desperate to see change, you would put the current sitting member last, but you must decide that for your self.  2.The second Ballot paper is bloody huge, it is for the Upper House called the Legislative Council, those elected scrutinize legislative change, ie; they police new laws, I have always believed that the upper house is the true place for independents, once again my own opinion, if ever the upper house was to be controlled by the governing party it would loose its ability to remain our checks and balances. In other words if say Labor had a majority in the upper house, they could pass any laws they wanted, and no body could question them, the checks and balances would become a rubber stamp.  The Upper house ballot paper will offer you 2 choices of how to vote, either you put a  1 in one of the boxes above the line, or you must number every box below the line, in the same way as the lower house ballot.   If you were voting for me, and put a 1 in the box above the line next to my name, your primary vote would count for me, if I did not receive enough votes to be elected, the vote for me would go to whom I decided was to receive my preferences. I would make the most informed decision I could at this stage that would be the majors last, as I would like to see true independent voices scrutinising legislative change.   You of course can decide your self where the preferences go, by marking all the boxes consequentially below the line.   I am opposed to the idea that you must in some way have a preference for all the candidates, considering you will probably not know them all, or in fact their will be some you oppose. This happens because of the 2 party counting system, the idea in most cases your vote will end up with one of the 2 major parties, because as I mentioned earlier, they write the electoral law, one of the reasons I am running, I want to make it more democratic.   How the counting works is rather complicated, what basically happens is the candidate with the lowest primary vote is ejected from the game, and his votes go to the next preferenced candidate, this type of counting is designed to benefit the biggest player, which will always be the major parties, Labor and Liberal, something I oppose.    SO NOW YOU KIND OF KNOW HOW IT WORKS, I wont go on as I feel the more you learn the angrier you will get about out voting system, my web site at www.howtovoteinsa.net will explain it further if you would like to know.   The site will also explain the changes I would fight for, it is not very professional, but I cannot afford to have it changed, as I did not set it up.    Best of luck Mark M Aldridge   If you are still confused, either contact me personally or the State Electoral Commission.                        Website provided by Vistaprint