March 2024 federal election announcement

A federal election is being held on March 16.

Timeline

Candidate submission deadline: Thursday, 7th March midnight

Campaigning: Saturday 9th March - Friday 15th March (inclusive)

Manifesto submission deadline: Monday 11th March midnight

HTV card submission deadline: Wednesday 13th March midnight

Election day (results calculated): Saturday 16th March

Official results announced: Saturday 16th March/Sunday 17th March

All times are in Canberra time (UTC 11). 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 13th March and revealed by the Electoral Commission on Thursday 14th March.

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 11th March midnight. These manifestos will then be posted by the Electoral Commission on the campaign subreddit for debate.

Electorates

13 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)
• Sydney (NSW)
• Hotham (VIC)
• Melbourne (VIC)
• Nicholls (VIC)
• Brisbane (QLD)
• Capricornia (QLD)
• Swan (WA)
• Mayo (SA)
• Clark (TAS)
• Canberra (ACT)
• Lingiari (NT)

Additionally, 3 senate seats, elected out of a pool nationally, are up for election. The Elected Senators can choose from the following regions to represent;

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

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 Monday 4th of March. 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 (Thursday 7th March).

Good luck to all.

Anacornda

Electoral Commissioner