[LINK] postal vote oddity

[Richard Chirgwin]

Howard Lowndes wrote:
>
>
> Jan Whitaker wrote:
>> At 10:42 AM 19/10/2007, Karl Auer wrote:
>>> I contacted the AEC, who said that this was all legal, that the parties
>>> would forward the applications to the AEC, and that postal vote papers
>>> would be sent direct from the AEC.
>>>
>>> We later received a similar letter from Mike Kelly (Lab), but his made
>>> it quite clear that the Labor Party was involved - the return address
>>> and the prepaid envelope all mentioned the Labor Party and the
>>> application form contained all the original bolding of AEC contact
>>> details. The toll-free contact number provided on the last page was
>>> identified as "the ALP Postal Vote Office" (though a second occurrence
>>> of the number on the same page in larger, red letters had no such
>>> information).
>>>
>>> So my question: What do the parties get out of this? Sending the
>>> application is an excuse for more junk mail, it gets their message into
>>> the household. But what do they get out of forwarding postal vote
>>> applications?
>>
>> We (Privacy Foundation) had this raised recently and are following up 
>> with the person who raised it. I forwarded your additional 
>> information to her and the APF Board. Thanks for describing what the 
>> ALP is doing because it seems to be much more transparent.
>>
>> What I found astounding, and possibly a conflict of interest, is that 
>> Nairn is the Special Minister of State with responsibilities FOR the 
>> AEC! If this is a 'trick' he uses, and he has used it in the past 
>> (APF complained to Privacy Commissioner and the AEC at the last 
>> election), it's no wonder the AEC is not taking complaints about 
>> misleading, although possibly legal, acts like this.
>>
>> What do they get? An indicator of who in their electorate is applying 
>> for a postal ballot, that's what. It probably factors into some exit 
>> polling data they'll be taking on election day.
>
> I have never seen exit polling in Australia.  It used to be rampant in 
> the UK.
Jan,

Exit polling is relevant for election media where voting is 
non-compulsory, since you get a chance to "snapshot" which party's 
voters turned out. Since voting is compulsory, there's far less of a 
"supporter drive" element to try and measure in predicting the outcome.

(Note: this is a neutral comment; I'm not trying to start a row about 
compulsory voting).

RC
>
>>
>> Jan
>>
>>
>> Jan Whitaker
>> JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
>> jwhit at janwhitaker.com
>> business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
>> personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
>> commentary: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
>>
>> Living, like writing, requires no wisdom. Only revising does. - Jim 
>> Sollisch, Sept, 2007
>> 'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, 
>> there is no plant.' - JW, April 2005
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>