If they treat us like asses, they’ll get donkeys

The 2010 Federal Election recorded the the highest rate of informal voting ever in Australia, with thousands of ballot papers left blank, or placed in the box with drawings of donkeys, dicks, and other elaborate doodles.

Australia’s media has been quick to dub this the “Latham Effect”, referring to the former Labor leader-turned-journalist’s call to cast blank ballots, during his 60 Minutes special.

“They say voting’s compulsory in Australia,” said the former leader, “but it’s not compulsory to fill them out.”

“You can put it straight into the ballot box totally blank, that’s what I’ll be doing on Saturday and I invite you to do the same.”

“It’s the ultimate protest vote,” he added.

But the river runs deeper than that, and even prior to Latham’s comments, online organisers were already using Facebook to call on people to “Vote Donkey 2010.”

The “Informed Donkey Vote” page urged Australians to cast donkey votes, reasoning that “in its current form, [the Australian parliament can] never succeed in anything that approaches genuine representation of the people.”

The group, and ones similar to it, were critical of the election process, and campaigns of the major parties, because they saw them to be disingenuous, populist, and highly stage-managed , leaving neither party worth voting for.

“I think there was an element of [protest in] this election,” said University of Sydney’s Professor Murry Print.

Print has conducted research for the Youth Electoral Study, a series of papers funded by the Australian Electoral Commission to examine young Australians perceptions of the election process. His study found some disturbing trends.

According to one study, if the compulsory element of voting was removed, only 50 per cent of young Australians (age 18-25) would bother turning up on election days. However, it was noted that it this wasn’t because they felt apathetic towards political issues, as is commonly stated, but rather because they didn’t believe voting would accomplish anything – either because no major party had engaging policies, or because no politician would fulfil their election promises.

In other words, the mass blank ballot didn’t happen because of Latham, it happened because people are sick of choosing between two parties, and one stinking pile off crap.