They've gone MAD at the tally room!

The ABC just ran the figures for Bennelong, the Australian Prime Minister's (Liberal, John Howard) seat. On the basis of the booths returned, his opponent, former ABC journalist Maxine McKew, the Australian Labor Party (aka ALP) candidate, is ahead.

The tally room erupted in wild cheers, which caused me to shout at the television: "There's only 0.2% counted! Take a deep breath, people!"

Australian politics are very odd, some booths give very odd returns, in particular Bass and Braddon, which are the two Tasmanian seats that have heavy logging industries within their boundaries. In the logging towns the Liberals can poll around 60% and still the seat is not safe for them, because the larger towns can vote in the reverse, and they have higher populations.

Each seat has multiple booths within it, with the numbers being tallied across the board. The Prime Ministership goes to the leader of the party that takes the most seats across the country. It is still possible to win the popular vote and yet not take power (just ask Kim Beazley), but the process is far less convoluted than the American process.

Each voter fills in two forms, a green form for their lower house candidate, the people who are running for that seat, and then a white form for the Senate.

The Senate is Australia's upper house of parliament, the house of legislative reform, and each state has 12 sitting senators, regardless of population. Each Territory has two, for a total of 76 Senators, half of which change at each election. There are 79 New South Wales Senate candidates, almost all of which will come from the two major parties (Liberal and Labor) or the Greens (Kerry Nettle is a popular candidate).

You can vote for the Senate with one vote across the line, allocating your preferences to a party who will distribute them along pre-agreed lines, or vote 1-79 below the line, distributing your own preferences. All of these are on paper and are hand-counted.

While typing this, Braddon, one of the Tasmanian seats that will be essential for Labor, does look as though it will go to the Labor candidate. It's going to be close, but it could be an ALP win.

In other election news, I was surprised to learn that I knew five of the Senate candidates personally. I feel I may have been a trifle focused on the lower house race ...

ETA An hour later, they're still calling Bennelong for Maxine. Howard has held that seat for 33 years [oops! originally typed 11, because I am too sleep deprived to be based in reality), and has a swing against him of 6.6%. Good grief! And it's still to close to call overall since Queensland and WA aren't really featuring yet. Should get ready for my party ...

They've gone MAD at the tally room!

The ABC just ran the figures for Bennelong, the Australian Prime Minister's (Liberal, John Howard) seat. On the basis of the booths returned, his opponent, former ABC journalist Maxine McKew, the Australian Labor Party (aka ALP) candidate, is ahead.

The tally room erupted in wild cheers, which caused me to shout at the television: "There's only 0.2% counted! Take a deep breath, people!"

Australian politics are very odd, some booths give very odd returns, in particular Bass and Braddon, which are the two Tasmanian seats that have heavy logging industries within their boundaries. In the logging towns the Liberals can poll around 60% and still the seat is not safe for them, because the larger towns can vote in the reverse, and they have higher populations.

Each seat has multiple booths within it, with the numbers being tallied across the board. The Prime Ministership goes to the leader of the party that takes the most seats across the country. It is still possible to win the popular vote and yet not take power (just ask Kim Beazley), but the process is far less convoluted than the American process.

Each voter fills in two forms, a green form for their lower house candidate, the people who are running for that seat, and then a white form for the Senate.

The Senate is Australia's upper house of parliament, the house of legislative reform, and each state has 12 sitting senators, regardless of population. Each Territory has two, for a total of 76 Senators, half of which change at each election. There are 79 New South Wales Senate candidates, almost all of which will come from the two major parties (Liberal and Labor) or the Greens (Kerry Nettle is a popular candidate).

You can vote for the Senate with one vote across the line, allocating your preferences to a party who will distribute them along pre-agreed lines, or vote 1-79 below the line, distributing your own preferences. All of these are on paper and are hand-counted.

While typing this, Braddon, one of the Tasmanian seats that will be essential for Labor, does look as though it will go to the Labor candidate. It's going to be close, but it could be an ALP win.

In other election news, I was surprised to learn that I knew five of the Senate candidates personally. I feel I may have been a trifle focused on the lower house race ...

ETA An hour later, they're still calling Bennelong for Maxine. Howard has held that seat for 33 years [oops! originally typed 11, because I am too sleep deprived to be based in reality), and has a swing against him of 6.6%. Good grief! And it's still to close to call overall since Queensland and WA aren't really featuring yet. Should get ready for my party ...