(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kids today don’t want to vote. And other fun facts about elections in Australia. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-06 Cartoon by Mark David/@markdavidcartoons: Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese defeated Coalition leader Scott Morrison in Australia's May 2022 federal election. How did the Covid pandemic impact democracy last May in Australia’s federal election? Why do South Australia’s electorates have average populations 58% greater than Tasmania’s? And which party most improved its voter support since 2019? These and other intriguing questions can be answered with detailed election data from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). Triumph of the teals in 2022 Ten independent candidates won seats in the 151-seat House of Representatives, by far the most in history. This is up from none in 1980, 1983, 1984 and 1987; one in 1990 and 1998; two in 1993 and 2007; and five in 1996 and 2019. But this needs some unpacking. The AEC reports that 97 independent candidates stood in 72 seats. That is a win rate of just over 10%. The conservative Liberal party, in contrast, contested 108 seats and won 27, a success rate of 25%. Labor gained 77 members having contested all 151 seats, a win rate of 51%. The conservative Nationals and Queensland Lib Nats won 31 having contested 45, a creditable 69% success rate. (The ‘teal independents’ get their name from being conservative on social and economic issues – blue – and progressive on climate – green.) Gratifying for the Greens, laudable for Labor Anti-Labor commentators were quick to report the overall swing against Labor of 0.76% compared with the 2019 election. They noted that Labor lost the primary vote by 3.1%. One crowed that Labor ‘got the lowest primary vote since 1910’, which is pretty right. Some suggested the election was a defeat for both Labor and the Coalition. These misread the reality. Voting data shows many rusted-on Labor voters, including dedicated party members, voted for teal independents in safe conservative seats like Goldstein, Kooyong, Wentworth and Warringah. (Well, they used to be safe. Maybe not any more.) In Kooyong, for example, Labor's primary vote in May was a puny 6.9%, down from 20% in 2016 and 22% in 2013. This reflects Labor supporters being smart and voting strategically, not abandoning their commitment to Labor. This is confirmed by measuring the swings in the 79 contests where no independents stood [151-72=79]. Over those 79 seats, Labor gained a modest swing of 0.22%. Not bad. The Greens performed better, achieving a surge of 2.9%. Impressive. The Coalition, in contrast, copped a swing against of -5.3%. Ouch! The minor parties combined improved their support by 1.4%. Unequal electorates favoured the Coalition Across the 151 lower house electorates, populations vary significantly by state. Tasmania, which swung decisively to the Coalition in 2022, has five electorates with 80,466 registered voters on average. South Australia, which swung to Labor, has ten with an average 127,205 voters. This could be evened up by consolidating Tassie into four seats and inserting an extra seat into SA. The reason this hasn’t happened, and won’t, is that section 24 of the Constitution guarantees every original state a minimum of five seats. Voting trends by age Voters aged 65 and above comprised 24.2% of all voters, despite being only 21.9% of the adult population. This continues a steady increase in senior engagement from 2007 onwards. In contrast, voters aged 18 to 24 who comprise 11.0% of the population only contributed 9.9% of votes. This continues the decline in participation since 2007. Impact of the pandemic If elderly citizens were most affected by Covid-19 last year and were also the demographic most supporting a change of government, it is possible the pandemic aided the Coalition by preventing sick seniors from voting. To its credit, however, the AEC took great efforts to maximise votes cast. For the first time, Covid-affected voters could vote by telephone. Around 75,000 voters did so. More than 5.5 million voted early. Diplomatic mail bags were used to deliver postal votes from Aussies stranded abroad. * This is an abbreviated version of an article published earlier today in Independent Australia. The original article is available here in full for free: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/kids-now-dont-want-to-vote-and-other-fun-facts-about-australian-elections,17210 * [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/6/2151335/-Kids-today-don-t-want-to-vote-And-other-fun-facts-about-elections-in-Australia Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/