Saturday, March 28, 2015

All eyes on NSW E*ections MMXV

The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do.
-Joseph Stalin


The analytics service used by the New South Wales electronic voting system, iVote, left voters vulnerable to having their ballots changed, according to security researchers. The iVote system was originally implemented ahead of the 2011 state election for vision-impaired voters and those living in rural areas who have difficulty reaching polling places, but the government is expanding the use of the iVote system as part of the election on March 28, and has taken approximately 66,000 votes since early polling opened last week. Researchers Vanessa Teague from the Department of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne

Totalitarians like Stalin and Hitler used preach, but never practice democracies. In the textbook of preachers we find words the voters or volk or comrades who have chosen hope over fear ....
Baird is Back with slimmer benches - the upper house aka legislative council will be filled with many little parties Abbott's Policies Had Spoken Stockholm Syndrome in Sydney and Beyond

All eyes on NSW It's an election that will be closely watched

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? 

Ironically, I too received a text from Mike Baird. He can't return my calls, but he's happy to send me texts. Go figure.

Welcome to Ohio State, Where It Is All For Sale, by Steven Conn (Department of History, Ohio State) Chronicle of Higher Education op-ed:

UK - Election candidates & real jobs 

The invitation to Sydney Boys' High School cocktail evening with Scott Morrison.
Old boys from one of Sydney's most prestigious public schools say they are disgusted that federal cabinet minister Scott Morrison will be a special guest at an alumni fund-raising event, warning it would be an embarrassment to their school to celebrate a man who has "so flagrantly disregarded human rights". Almost 300 alumni of Sydney Boys High have signed a fiercely-worded letter to the school's Old Boys Union, which is organising a fund-raising cocktail event next month featuring Mr Morrison as one of its keynote speakers.
Tomorrow Voters at Sydney Boys will be perplexed

The NSW election is on Saturday. Here is a no-nonsense guide to the ins and outs of voting on election day. We can even point you in the right direction for sausage sizzles and cake stalls.

Snagvotes tracks the location of sausage sizzles, cake stalls, and other fundraising activities on election day. The underlying objective is to celebrate our democracy, encourage participation in the democratic process and offer support for community groups and volunteers that run sausage sizzles and stalls on election day, as it is an important means of fundraising for them. #Snagvotes and #DemocracySausage promotes these fundraising initiatives through the election sausage sizzle map, social media, and traditional channels. It has been running since 2010 with the help of a number of contributors.
The message is “Get together with your community and enjoy a sausage on election day – a great Australian tradition”.

Guide to All things electoral (To boot, Free from Anthony Green BullS****) NSW E*ections MMXV

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests...


Greens Call For A Ban On Election Day Sausage Sizzle

Sausage
The Australian Greens have today called for the immediate banning of the traditional election day sausage sizzle, saying that it is highly insensitive to vegetarians and the phallic nature of the sausage is intimidatory towards female voters.
A spokesperson for the Greens explained the call to ban the sausage to The (un)Australian, saying: “For too long voters have been forced to endure children trying to foist a sausage on people as they line up to vote, the smell of burning dead animals is horrific and then you’re confronted with this giant phallic symbol, it’s too much I just want to vote damn it and aggressively push my Green Party how to vote card on other voters.”
When we raised the issue of the election day sausage sizzle being a great way for schools and community groups to raise funds, the spokesperson responded by saying: “They could sell tofu or salad or mung beans, it’s not all about meat you know a lot of my friends love mung beans.”
A spokesperson for Premier Mike Baird refused to be drawn into the debate, while Opposition leader Luke Foley asked us what Baird was doing and said he’d consult Unions NSW and get back to us.
The (un)Australian didn’t dare raise the issue with the Shooters and Fishers Party as they’re armed and crazy.
Mark Williamson
www.twitter.com/MW__Oh