Candidates will discover on Thursday their position on the ballot paper in October’s election, although with a random ballot paper it is not clear there is any advantage to be had. The names of more than 100 candidates expected to stand for the hotly contested ACT election will be announced at lunchtime. With an extra eight seats up for grabs as the Parliament swells to 25 members, this election offers the best opportunity to get elected of any election since self-government. If every incumbent keeps their seat other than the two retiring members, there will still be 10 new faces. To ensure no advantage from ballot position, the ACT Electoral Commission will use a random number generator to decide the order in which the parties appear. Independents will all be on the right-hand side of the ballot paper – in one column if there are up to five independents, and spreading over two or more columns if there are more.
Labor campaign director Matt Byrne said there was probably a very small benefit in being in one of the earlier columns, but because there was no above-the-line voting it was not as pronounced in the Senate.
Liberal campaign director Daniel Clode said order on the ballot paper was “not a huge deal”. If all 12 registered parties fielded candidates in every electorate it could make more of a difference, given the potential to create confusion or difficulty finding a single party among so many. But he didn’t anticipate more than about six parties in each electorate and said in that case it would be easy enough for voters “to figure out who’s who”, he said.
Full Article: Random number generator to determine candidate positions on ballot paper on Thursday.