How your vote is counted

One member, one vote

Membership is tied to a mobile number that you verify by SMS code. Each number can belong to only one membership, and each membership gets one vote on each question. That is the whole mechanism for stopping someone voting twice: not a cookie, not an IP address, but a phone number you had to prove you hold.

It follows that the roll is only as good as that verification. This is why we ask for a real mobile rather than an email, and why an unverified sign-up does not count toward anything.

Your ballot stays private

The Party can confirm that each vote came from a distinct eligible member, and it publishes the totals. It does not publish how any individual voted, and no part of the site exposes that. Clause 6.3 of the Constitution makes that a rule rather than a courtesy.

Being straight with you about the limit: your vote is stored against your membership in our database, because that is how we stop double-voting. It is confidential, not anonymous. An administrator with database access could read it. We do not, and the Constitution forbids publishing it, but you should know the difference between those two words before you rely on it.

How a question reaches a vote

1. A member proposes a topic.
2. Other members endorse it. Enough endorsements move it forward.
3. It opens as a vote, and every member in good standing gets one.
4. The result becomes the Party's position and binds its representatives. It does not bind you: you are free to disagree publicly and stay a member.

What we publish

Closed questions show the winning position and the share of the vote it received, along with how many members voted. Those totals are public because a binding position that nobody can check is not binding in any useful sense. You can see the current ones on the party line page.

If you think a result is wrong

Tell us. Email [email protected] or write to the Party Secretary, Timothy Yang, Balgowlah Heights NSW 2093. A member can also raise it at a general meeting, and decisions about membership can be appealed under clause 9 of the Constitution.

What we are not claiming

This is not a cryptographically verifiable election, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. There is no end-to-end verifiable receipt, and you cannot independently audit the count without trusting us. What we can offer is a clear description of the mechanism, a Constitution that binds us to it, and a published total you can check against the membership numbers. If the Party grows to the point where that is not good enough, the standard to move to is an independently audited ballot, and we would expect members to vote on it.