Went to vote this arvo, had to move polling booths because of the queue, managed to find a quieter booth.
I have to say that the ballot paper for the upper house with multiple columns and rows is a design mess. Very confusing, could have been done a lot better. I wrote a comment on the ballot about this, FFS design the ballot paper better.
We'll see what happens. I reckon a fair number of the ALP members who won last time in seats they really didn't think they would win, will bow out without much comment. I don't think any ALP candidate seriously thought they would be the member for Hawthorn in the first place.
If the ALP don't lose seats after the ridiculous thumping they gave the Tories last time then the Libs are in very deep sh!t. You don't win a huge majority and expect to keep it the following election. Given the situation over the last couple of years it would be beyond a miracle if the incumbent government doesn't lose seats.
The more interesting aspect will be the proportion of first preference votes in the legislative assembly which go to the ALP, LIbs and Nats. Last time this was 79%: 42.9% ALP, 30.4% Lib and 4.8% Nat. The Greens got 10.7%. Just as an aside, with half the votes of the Greens, the Nats got twice as many seats last time - 6 to 3.
Expecting a majority ALP government with a reduced majority. They will lose some to the Greens and the Libs will pick up a few seats. I also reckon the primary vote for the majors will drop again, more in line with the Federal results where the total of ALP/Lib/Nat was below 70%.
DS