We must demand another election
The report’s are flooding in about the conduct of the
election, as the creator of the web site “How to vote in S.A.” and being a
candidate in the March 2010 Election, with a rather large on line presence, I
have received huge feed back from the electorate.
I have been one of the few people since our federation that
has past experience in the court of disputed returns, and have fought for
electoral reform for many years now, my site
www.howtovoteinsa.net had over 25,000
hits in the few days before the election, the site clearly explains past
discrepancies found in recent elections.
The large amount of hits clearly
indicates the need for a huge increase in availible electoral information.
I am sure many have heard of the Labor parties deliberate
attack on democracy, in regards to the fake how to vote pamphlets, but the
assaults on democracy go much further and were not restricted to the Labor
party.
A majority of South Australians, do not find full
preferential voting democratic; neither do they enjoy attending the polling
booth ill informed of their choice of candidates, like it or not, that is the
law, because those that write the legislation have the most to gain from
structural biases, Atkinson being one of them.
Under the electoral act, it is however the electoral
commissioners job to ensure we are adequately informed of how to vote, which is
why we USED to receive a how to vote guide to every home. The idea of
the guide was to inform the electorate of electoral changes, to educate new
voters, remind past voters, and ensure an informed electorate attends the
polling booth.
So why did this guide not turn up this year?
As a candidate
I was promised contact information of the other 72 candidates running so as to
submit my preference ticket, the promise was not kept, so even I had no chance
of casting an informed vote, neither did the rest of the electorate.
I contacted the electoral commission to question the act, as
the online version of the electoral act, clearly still included Michael
Atkinson’s section that disallowed online blog’s, the reply was to seek legal
advise, so the commissioner did not even want to help the candidates understand
the act, let alone honor her promises or fulfill her obligations under the act.
I have in my possession more complaints about the conduct of
the election, than I could ever imagine, intimidation of voters, undue
influence and bribery, complaints of the use of pencils that can be rubbed of
with ones finger (not an ideal security measure), reports from scrutineers that
invalid votes were the result of ill informed rather than deliberate actions,
incorrect installation of posters, un ethical advertising, the fact is the list
is long and arduous.
Possibly thousands of postal votes never turned up, dozens
of people have told me they were denied a vote, many thousands of vote may have
been invalid due to the electoral commission’s failure to educate the
electorate, hundreds or thousands of votes may have been influenced by fake how
to vote cards, by deliberately disguised Labor workers, Labors intimidation of
our elderly through a series of computer generated home phone calls have surely
affected the election out come and offers of special personal services in
exchange for votes is out right bribery.
I have reports of people being denied access to the polling
booths due to their choice of clothing, in some cases denied a vote, electors
that were told they were not on the roll who have voted for years, voters who
made a mistake on the ballot paper who were refused a replacement and general
confusement all round, in fact most even had no idea of the difference between
the upper and lower houses.
I have had calls from people saying they did not think they
could vote for me, that were told that a vote for an independent or minor
player was a wasted vote, on line people were led to believe incorrect
preference exchanges, and in fact unlike years of past, could not access
details of where the preferences were going, in other words a complete
shambles.
How can an election be deemed fair, if some were not allowed
to vote, others not able to, none were informed enough, some were intimidated
or bribed, many deceived, we received no security as to how we marked our votes
and our intention ignored?
I will be again putting in an application to the court of
disputed returns, and under the act demanding the results of the election
deemed void, as much as I understand the financial cost of such an action, but
dare we allow the devastating cost to democracy if we allow the results to
stand?
For details of how the 2006 election was held, please go to
www.howtovoteinsa.net and please send
me your views, experiences and whether you felt you were adequately informed to
vote last Saturday to
aldridgemark@bigpond.com
I will be producing a petition to assist me in the court, please help me uphold
democracy the corner stone of our society.
Mark M Aldridge
Independent Candidate for the Legislative Council
“Change is Necessary”
08 82847482 / 0403379500
PS; please do not let the fact that this information
will not appear in the media, undermine your support, it is now time for the
people to stand united in the deafening silence of media bias. Yes I am having
a dig at the 2 party preferred media, not all of you.