Election Day: tracking the seat of Sydney

After getting to know the candidates over the past few months, I decided to visit them all while they were out campaigning last Saturday.

10:45am:

My day started off at Town Hall where Clover was expected to make an appearance at 11am. After speaking with a few voters, it was apparent many of those voting there were actually out-of-towners. Town Hall was surprisingly quiet.

11:00am:

I approached some of Clover’s campaign assistants to ask to take a photo of them. I began chatting with one of them, and then introduced myself. This surprisingly did not go down so well. The man, (who’s name I actually do not know) went on to tell me he was disgusted with my pre-election coverage of Clover. He told me what I had written recently was completely “untrue”. Following on from this, I told him any speculative writing, or opinion writing I have done, has a header above it saying “opinion” or “comment”. I found his aggressive nature to be unwarranted. But, all in all, you’ve got to be able to take criticism. Not everyone is going to be pleased with what you write.

11:05am:

I met a photographer, Matt, who took some fabulous photos of Clover. Thanks Matt for the photos!

11:15am:

I left Town Hall to head towards Surry Hills. I was interested to speak with people around the East Sydney/Surry Hills area about their voting intentions. I went to Francis Street polling booth. I got chatting to a couple of guys about who they voted for and why. Mark Dickson, an East Sydney resident, said he voted for Clover again. “I voted for Clover because she’s actually listened when I’ve had personal correspondence with her. She has raised things in parliament when other people may have ignored it.”

12:30pm:

I then headed down to Stanley Street for some lunch and to speak with some more voters. People’s intentions were varied. Many voters I spoke with, particularly in the gay community, had voted for Adrian. They said despite being traditional Labor voters, they were impressed with Adrian’s campaign and his policy ideas. Others said they did not like how Clover was both Lord Mayor and Member for Sydney.

1:30pm:

As the Greens had good chances in both Balmain and Marrickville, I thought I’d head towards Rozelle, to where Jamie Parker was campaigning. I have to say, despite initially being against social media, Twitter proved to be overwhelmingly useful in tracking the candidates and their whereabouts throughout the day. I tweeted Jamie to find out he was out the back of Rozelle Public School. I went to chat with him about the type of feedback he’d received thus far and his thoughts on the negative media surrounding him recently. “People here are interested in ideas, not smears,” he told me. “Unlike the Labor Party, I stand up for what I believe in.”

2:30pm:

I went to cast my vote behind Broadway shopping centre. The lack of queue startled me. In fact, the queue for the sausage sizzle was longer than the actual voting queue (which was non-existent!).

3:00pm:

I met Sacha Blumen at St Cancice’s church in Elizabeth Bay for a brief chat. He was really positive and was really happy to be out and about.

“As always, people have been friendly and polite, which is great to see,” he said.

I asked him about the expected Labor bloodbath and he said because Clover was an Independent, he felt the predicted Coalition landslide hadn’t deterred him from his campaign.

“In this seat, it’s a different race,” he said. “It’s the race to be the best MP.”

3:45pm:

I headed back to Surry Hills to meet Adrian at Crown Street Public School. While waiting for him, I made a visit to Thomas Dux- don’t you love the free taste testing they have there at the weekend! Adrian was positive; he predicted he would steal some of Clover’s primary votes. “I think there will be a swing from Clover, to me,” he said.

And where to after the election is over? “I’ve always been interested in politics,” he said. “I’ll figure it out after we see what happens.”

4:00pm:

Last stop of the day: Bourke Street Public School, to chat with De. She pointed out how quiet all the booths had been. She said pre-polling had been a lot busier than she anticipated.

I asked if anything exciting had happened throughout the day. “I had one person tear up a voting person in front of me,” she told me. “But that’s your democratic right. I don’t take it personally.”

And where will De go from here? “I’ll always be involved in politics,” she said. “I’ll always support the Greens- they’re the party of the future.”

4:15pm:

Off on home I go to get ready for the Greens after party at Sydney University’s grandstand.

7:00pm:

Headed to the Greens after party. With the Greens having a good chance at picking up two seats, I thought going to their party would be interesting and exciting. The room was filled with joy and hope. But hopes soon faded.

8:00pm:

Federal Greens leader Bob Brown arrives. He congratulates Barry O’Farrell for his victory.

“I congratulate the incoming government on that,” he said. “And I commiserate with the outgoing Labor government.”

Senator Brown also congratulated Fiona and Jamie for their campaigns but said the results are so close that they may not be called for days or even weeks.

“We’re not going to know the results we want to know until the end of the night or possibly for days or weeks from now,” he said.

9:00pm:

We watched the polling results come in and as they always do, they were constantly changing.

The seat of Balmain soon became a three-person race between Verity Firth, Liberal candidate James Falk, and Jamie. As ABC election analyst, Antony Green, predicted, Falk definitely shook things up.

11:00pm:

With no more results expected for the evening, we all headed on home. Congratulations to all the candidates for an awesome campaign election! Had an awesome day out on the road and look forward to doing it all again in the future.