What Is a "Donkey Vote"?

"A donkey voter is someone who votes for candidates based solely upon the order they are listed on the ballot paper.

In Australia, where all State, Federal and Territory electoral systems combine compulsory turnout with some form of preferential voting, a donkey vote refers to the practice of numbering the candidates' boxes sequentially from top to bottom of the ballot-paper, rather than taking the time to number the candidates in the voter's own thought-out order of preference."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_vote

In my home country of Australia, voting in elections (ALL elections) is compulsory. We also use a queer voting system called "Preference Voting", wherein a voter numbers political parties or prospective prime ministers in order of personal preference. (You can check out the link here for more info.)

So, what happens when it comes to election time, and you don't have any party or candidate that's right for you? What if you think the system is broken, and would rather not vote? Well, in America you can just stay an home. That's sweet, just the way it should be (well, halfway there, anyway, but more on that in another post.)

In Australia, we don't have a choice in the matter. We have to get up off our asses, walk up to the local school / hall, and get our names ticked off in this big ol' book. But thanks to the glorious system of the Secret Ballot, what happens when we step inside the voting booth is completely up to us.

So, some of us, startled by a complete lack of political choice, or due to some ideological reason, choose to donkey vote. They put the numbers in any order, random, or just number from top to bottom. Some people don't even mark their ballot papers, and some others write in their own candidates.

In the next election I intend on drawing pretty pictures on my ballot paper...