Welcome to a forgotten corner of the ancient forest.
Ever wondered where the really dumb people live. Err perhaps that is a little unkind, they may not be really dumb, just really indifferent. Well it is in the electorate of Reid. Reid is in the Western suburbs of Sydney. The main suburbs include Auburn, Berala, Granville , Greystanes, Guildford, Guildford West, Holroyd, Homebush Bay, Lidcombe, Merrylands, Merrylands West, Newington, Old Guildford, Regents Park, Sefton, Silverwater, South Wentworthville, Woodpark and Yennora.
Reid has the ignominity of having the highest informal vote in the country with a staggering 11.26% of votes cast in this electorate being duds. Reid is represented by Laurie Ferguson, which an unkind person might reflect upon vis-a-vis not exactly setting the world on fire in the intelligence stakes himself however The Green Man won't go there.
If Reid are to retain the title they cannot afford to rest on their laurals however. They almost lost to Greenaway which made an extraordinary effort, dumbing down from 6.79% informal at the last election to 11.04% at this election. Greenaway is also to the west of Sydney based around Blacktown, I think we are picking up a pattern here. In fact of 20 electorates topping the informal vote could 16 are NSW electorates, 3 are from Queensland and 1 from SA.
At the other end of the scale, of the 20 electorates with the lowest informal vote count, 15 are Victorian, 2 from NSW, 2 from TAS and 1 from ACT. The average informal vote in these electorates is 3.36%.
You can check out your electorate here.
There are many jewels hidden amongst the leaves in this forgotten part of the ancient forest. Spend some time browsing and you are sure to find some. Click here or continue your search below
or read the most recent entries here.People who vote informal are not necessarily stupid. They are more likely to be uninterested in the political process due to a feeling of not being included in the bribe fest. Or perhaps they deliberately voted informal due to a feeling of frustration at the ineffectual sameness of the major political parties. Whatever the reason, your derogatory comments about Sydney's West made me think that you should stop carressing your own dick with your own hand and stop wasting so much of your life on the net.
Posted by: Paul Todd at October 16, 2004 11:19 PMAh Paul, you comment was going so well but fell off significantly in quality towards the end.
You will note however, that I did identify indifference as a likely cause. In spite of this I would hazzard a guess that Sydneys poorer suburbs are no poorer or more disenfranchised than those of Melbourne, or Brisbane or Adelaide for that matter. One could wonder why the poor of these cities did not display equal indifference to the electoral process.
It is an interesting phenonemon and I felt it was worthy of comment. I fully accept that the post was phrased in a mischievous manner and I apologise if I have upset your delicate sensibilities.
Posted by: Greenman at October 18, 2004 07:45 AM
Stumble It!