August 2023 federal election announcement

A federal election is being held on August 26.

Timeline

Candidate submission deadline: Saturday, 19th August midnight

Campaigning: Monday 21st August - Friday 25th August (inclusive)

Manifesto submission deadline: Monday 21st August midnight

HTV card submission deadline: Wednesday 23rd August midnight

Election day (results calculated): Saturday 26th August

Official results announced: Saturday 26th August/Sunday 27th August

All times are in Canberra time (UTC 10). There may be polls throughout the campaign. Results may be released on Saturday if they are ready.

Campaigning

Campaigning will take place on r/AusSimCampaigning.

Endorsements

Endorsements are for parties to encourage voters to vote for another candidate. To endorse a candidate, you will need to make a campaign post endorsing them (you can do all your endorsements in one post). Endorsements will not count towards any post limits. You may change your endorsement at any time; however, this will diminish the effectiveness severely.

How To Vote Cards

All candidates and parties will be able to submit a How To Vote (HTV) card after the official announcement of candidates. HTV cards will instruct voters how to distribute their preferences. 75% of a candidate’s voters will follow the HTV card.

HTV cards must be submitted to the EC using a form that will be provided after the official announcement of candidates.

HTV cards will be due at midnight on Wednesday 23rd August and revealed by the Electoral Commission on Thursday 24th August.

Manifestos

All parties will need to submit their manifestos to the Electoral Commission via Reddit Modmail to r/AusSimEC before the new deadline on Monday 21st August midnight. These manifestos will then be posted by the Electoral Commission on the campaign subreddit for debate.

Electorates

15 electorates will be contested in this election, as outlined in this post, which also contains information on the boundaries of the electorates. The electorates are as follows:

• Cowper (NSW)
• Cunningham (NSW)
• Robertson (NSW)
• Sydney (NSW)
• Hotham (VIC)
• Melbourne (VIC)
• Nicholls (VIC)
• Brisbane (QLD)
• Capricornia (QLD)
• Moncrieff (QLD)
• Pearce (WA)
• Mayo (SA)
• Denison (TAS)
• Canberra (ACT)
• Lingiari (NT)

Additionally, 4 senate seats, elected out of a pool nationally, are up for election. The states/territories that the elected Senators will represent are:

• New South Wales
• South Australia
• Tasmania
• Northern Territory

Post Types

There are three different types of posts:

• Electorate posts which are used to campaign in a single electorate, benefitting the candidate and/or their party in both the House and Senate in the electorate.
• National posts which are used to campaign nationally. These posts are mainly for Senate campaign but will also provide a small boost to your vote in every electorate.
• Endorsement posts which are used by parties to endorse a candidate from outside of their party in an electorate.

Post Titles

Normal post title rules apply. All posts must have a correctly formatted title to make it easier for readers, markers and for automatic flairs:

[Robertson - 27th - Post 1] Maaaaaaaadison campaigns for Hunter statehood in Cessnock[National - 28th - Post 4] model-slater meets young people on Discord to promote the Commonwealth Party

If you do not put the electorate in the title, it will be assumed to be a national post regardless of whether it is or not.

Each electorate or national post is required to be labelled with the date and post number as shown above.

Post Limits

• Candidates will have four posts that they can use on any day throughout the campaign. However, posting all your posts on one day will diminish the effectiveness. These posts can be used in the candidate's own electorate or national.
• Each party will have two additional posts that can be used by the leader or any other member of the party with permission from the leader. These posts can be used in either an electorate or national.
• Endorsement posts will not count towards post limits.

Candidate submission

Candidate submission will open on Tuesday 15th of August. The form will be sent out via a post on r/AusSimEC as well as to party leaders on Discord.

All candidates who intend on standing for election MUST verify on this thread. Even if you aren't 100% sure if you will be running, I encourage you to verify your candidacy. All verifications must be in before the close of nominations (Saturday 19th August).

Good luck to all.

AnacorndaElectoral Commissioner