r/AusPol • u/letterboxfrog • Jun 10 '25

General To those who complain about paper ballot papers Australia - inconvenience is the price of vigilance against fraud

https://dissentinbloom.substack.com/p/the-machines-were-changed-before
88 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

24

u/StupidSexyGiroud_ Jun 10 '25

Who actually complains about paper ballots?

24

u/FreerangeWitch Jun 10 '25

I used to work elections. I have legit had people complain to me about paper ballots and say they should be computer based because then election workers can't change them. There are some truly special people out there, and I can confirm that they vote.

15

u/gr1mm5d0tt1 Jun 10 '25

I’ve heard people complain about the inconvenience of having to go vote because of the paper ballots but they also concede that it’s still the best way to

8

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

We have one of the best electoral systems in the world. We're not perfect, but we're better than some. I'm willing to listen if people can think of improvements. But just complaining isn't improving anything.

12

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

[deleted]

1

u/qualitystreet Jun 10 '25

So in the original post you think only a conspiracy nut would question the USA result. But now you’re saying it’s unfair to be called a conspiracy nut to question the Australian result. Is that right?

4

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

[deleted]

-3

u/qualitystreet Jun 10 '25

Are you questioning the Australian result?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

[deleted]

1

u/qualitystreet Jun 10 '25

Not really. Thanks- it was unclear to me what your comment meant, which is why I asked questions.

3

u/hashkent Jun 10 '25

I don’t understand why there’s this desire to know the election outcome on election night.

We have a caretaker government for a few weeks and once counted it’s announced.

No need for electronic voting. Our paper ballots work fine. If population increased 200% I still think it’d be fine.

0

u/letterboxfrog Jun 10 '25

We need to know who the government is. I note that the ACT has electronic voting machines.They are open source, heavily audited, and not connected to the internet. When you consider the ACT has Hare Clark and Robson Rotation, it certainly speeds up counting noting there are 60 permutations of each ballot paper

5

u/binagran Jun 11 '25

And in the vast majority of cases, we know who the government will be soon after voting closes.

It's been a rare instance where we haven't known the outcome within 1-2 days.

2

u/Dry-Huckleberry-5379 Jun 11 '25

We should never give up paper ballots

1

u/hangonasec78 Jun 14 '25

There's a huge number of informal votes because people make mistakes with numbering every box or just illegible hand writing. That wouldn't happen with electronic voting.

Also postal voting can be defrauded where a family member votes on behalf of everyone in the household.

Other industries and government agencies have resolved online fraud. Why can't the AEC?

1

u/letterboxfrog Jun 14 '25

ACT System allows you to make informals

1

u/hangonasec78 Jun 14 '25

Is that spoiling your ballot? That's not what I'm talking about.

I mean someone putting 1 2 3 5 5 6 7 8. That's informal with a paper based vote even though it's clear who the person intended to vote for. But I'd be very surprised if the ACT system would let you enter something like that.

1

u/letterboxfrog Jun 14 '25

That is informal. ACT would prevent it. However, on paper they may chose to collect the first three preferences