Six candidates on the Macnamara ballot

Link to the TWiSK Macnamara Election Guide
Link to bookings for the TWiSK Macnamara Election Forum with Burns, Saulo and Semmens

At the close of nominations last week, there were six candidates for the local seat of Macnamara.

We already knew about the ALP, Liberal, and Greens candidates; the additional three are standing for One Nation, Libertarians, and the sixth is a frequent flyer independent.

In the 2020 poll, One Nation secured less than 1% and was outscored by independent JB Myers, who secured just under 2%. It’s likely that the three ‘minnows’ will get a combined vote of around 5% or less.

Preferences will decide the outcome

In our preferential voting system, candidates with the lowest votes are ‘eliminated,’ and their preferences are distributed. After the minor candidates are gone, the last three remaining in the race are set to be the ALP, Liberals, and Greens. The preference of the third-ranked candidate’s voters will decide the ultimate winner.

The ALP set to issue an open ticket

[As reported on Sky and The Conversation] It’s understood that Labor will issue a vote 1 Josh Burns How to Vote card and leave it to voters to allocate their own preferences.

Order on the ballot

The order on the ballot was decided by random draw (as below). Conventional wisdom is that some undecided voters exercise a so-called donkey vote—numbering their ballot from the top down—but no one knows how many vote this way.