Quote:But happy to vote, not sure that mandatory attendance or voting is democratic, when true democracy would give you the right not to vote. When true democracy would be Optional preferential voting where your vote does not go to someone you don't want it to go to
Optional preferential voting, as it was practices here, was still compulsory. It was an absurdly irrational combination, born of lack of understanding of how our voting system works. If there were seven candidates, none of which you liked, you were still compelled to vote for one, but in the next election when there were only 6 of them, voting was either compulsory or optional, depending on who your first preference was. The result being that compulsory votes were up against optional votes.
Nope and YOU'VE never understood Optional preferential voting anyway.
1. You don't have to vote if you don't like anyone. Just put the ballot paper unmarked in the box or pocket it.
2. In optional preferential voting you only need to number the boxes of candidates you would like to vote for in the order you prefer them...
Hence your vote will never go to a person or party you do not wish it to.
Quote:Now factionalism is rife in both major parties particularly Labor... that is hardly democratic.
It is completely irrelevant to whether we have democracy.
Nope... factionalism distorts democracy... voting is no longer an individual choice.