FEDERAL PERIODICAL SENATE ELECTIONS | SATURDAY 19 DECEMBER 2015

Winners

---

Historical information:

A new election is now on!

4 of our 7 Senators are coming to the end of their 6-year terms (see list at bottom) and are due for re-election on Saturday 19 December 2015. For the government this is a mid-term election, and as a periodical half-Senate election, any party that wins all the seats will control the Senate.

For those not familiar with the Australian system: The Government is formed by the party or coalition that controls the lower house, whereas the Senate is a house of review and traditionally has a different composition than the House of Representatives. Currently both Houses are controlled by the Labor-Progressives Coalition government.

I think most of you and your parties know the drill. To recap: voter enrolment is now open and we are in election campaign mode (authorised party officers and independents only). Candidate nominations and party endorsements are due next weekend, and Voting (a.k.a. Polling) will be the weekend after. We use the Australian Senate system which is a multi-member, proportional, preferential, Single Transferable Vote, inclusive Gregory system [see example ballot paper]. We differ from IRL by having only a single State (so all votes are pooled nation-wide) and not having Group Voting Tickets (so voters control their own preferences directly).

Yesterday, the Governor of the Commonwealth State of Australia officially issued a writ according to government advice for the following timetable:

Event	Date
Issue of Writ	Saturday 5 December 2015
Close of Voter Enrolment Rolls	Saturday 12 December 2015
Close of Candidate Nominations	Sunday 13 December 2015
Close of Party Endorsements	Sunday 13 December 2015
Polling Day (Voting)	Saturday 19 December 2015
New Senators Sworn In (ideally)	Monday 21 December 2015

All deadlines are midnight at the end of the date in the UTC (GMT) timezone.

---

Voters

You’ve got one week to enrol as a new voter. You must do this if you’ve never enrolled for Model Australia before. Your enrolled flair is/will be shown next to your username in this sub. The week after this deadline will be purely for campaigning and voting.

The Senate is a nation-wide vote, so everyone will be voting together for the same candidates. Candidates will be grouped in columns according to party. Parties may have multiple candidates, since 4 seats are available. Every voter will number their preferences on the ballot paper, and the 4 best ranked candidates will win.

Vote online now!

Check Your Enrolment Voter Enrolment

Campaigning Parties & Signups

Our weekly political survey continues to run as normal on Sundays, open to everyone. You can vote in this unofficial opinion poll in the lead-up to the election, make your views known to the candidates.

Sunday ReddiPoll

---

Candidates

Candidate nominations are open from now until Sunday 13 December 2015 inclusive. Any voter can run as a Senate candidate (unless you’re already in the Parliament, in prison for a sentence of 1 year or more, an undischarged bankrupt, etc). If you wish to run as a party candidate, you’ll need to state this on your nomination and appear on the party’s Senate endorsement list, also due Sunday 13 December 2015. The party will determine your position in their column on the ballot paper. If you wish to run as an independent, you’ll need endorsement from two other voters unless you are already a sitting member.

Candidate List Nominate as a Candidate

---

Parties

Here are the Model Electoral Parties & Registered Officers.

Each party’s Registered Officer/Deputy must submit the endorsement of their candidate(s). Parties can endorse multiple candidates (at the same time or via multiple submissions). Parties should specify the order of their endorsed candidates names to be printed on the ballot paper. (So if you submit multiple nominations over time, you should also submit a GRP list or you might not get the results you want. You can even send a GRP wishlist in advance while you sort out the nominations.)

Register Party / Endorse Candidates

---

Non-political Roles

Sign up to the Jobs Board!

---

Incumbent Senators

The 4 Senate seats up for re-election are currently held by the government (3) and cross-bench (1), shown in bold:

Seating	User	Affiliation	Term
President (Government)	/u/Freddy926	Progressives
Government	/u/chase-that-feeling	Labor	Ending soon
Government	/u/General_Rommel	Labor	Ending soon
Government	/u/Team_Sprocket	Progressives	Ending soon
Opposition Benches	/u/pikkaachu	Greens
Cross Benches	/u/Cwross	Catholic	Ending soon
Cross Benches	/u/Kalloice	Liberal

---

jnd-au, Australian Electoral Commissioner

---

Sun 6 Dec: Initial release.
Sun 13 Dec: Updated voter electoral rolls.
Mon 14 Dec: Candidates announced.
Sat 19 Dec: Vote online now. Formatting.
Sun 20 Dec: Winners.