It is disappointing that the Federal Court ruled on Wednesday, September 20, that a tick on the Voice referendum ballot paper will count as a ‘Yes’ vote while crosses will be ruled invalid.
While I respect the ruling of Justice Steven Rares, the United Australia Party will appeal the decision in the High Court.
Our reason for appealing is simple.
It is my opinion that mere fact anybody votes with a tick or a cross rather than indicating their choice by writing ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ is inherently ambiguous.
Why? Because the voter has clear instructions to indicate their decision by writing either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
What does the voter mean when they ignore this advice and mark the box with a tick or a cross?
Nobody can say for sure.
It could mean that they didn’t understand the instructions, and with our high rates of immigration leading to English literacy issues, that is possible.
But a tick might also mean, ‘I am complying with the requirement to vote because I don’t want to be fined, but I refuse to say whether I support or oppose the Voice.’
From the Prime Minister down, the ‘Yes’ campaign has branded anyone who opposes the Voice a racist, so it is hardly surprising that many people don’t want to express their opposition.
There is a third possibility. Both ticks and crosses can be used as a means of selecting one of two choices. So putting either a tick or a cross beside only one box is ambiguous. If by putting a tick a voter is saying ‘Yes’, then according to the same logic by putting a cross a voter means ‘No’.
It therefore seems, in my view, completely unfair that a tick will be counted as a valid vote and a cross as an invalid vote.
Either all ticks count as a yes and all crosses count as a no, or neither ticks nor crosses are counted as valid votes. This would seem to be a fair expectation.
We could avoid all this confusion by putting two boxes on the ballot paper – one marked Yes and the other marked No. Then all the voter would have to do is pick the box of their choice and it wouldn’t matter if they put a tick, a cross, a thumbprint, or a smiley emoji. So long as they marked only one box, their answer would be clear.
There are many Australians who feel that this has not been a fair referendum debate. The government has funded a pro-Voice ‘education’ campaign. The funding of big corporates has dramatically favoured the ‘Yes’ campaign. The ABC constantly promotes the ‘Yes’ campaign. Yet despite having all the advantages, the ‘Yes’ campaign is sinking in the opinion polls.
At the end of the day, what is important is that every Australian should have the chance to vote and every Australian should be confident that their vote is counted correctly. That means every ‘Yes’ vote is counted as a ‘Yes’, every ‘No’ vote is counted as a ‘No’, and all informal votes are invalid. Australians can be confident that together with the United Australia Party I will do everything in my power to make sure the election is fair, the counting is fair, and that if ticks mean ‘Yes’, then crosses mean ‘No’, or both count for naught. Above all, let’s keep Australia united and vote ‘No’ to a Canberra Voice for a leftist elite.
