Writs recieved: Information on the August 2021 Sydney by-election

Campaigning: Tuesday 24 August 12am AEST - Friday 27 August 11:59pm AEST

Candidate submission deadline: Monday 23 August 12noon AEST

Election day: Saturday 28 August

Provisional results: Saturday 28 August 6PM AEST at the earliest, Sunday 29 August 6PM AEST at the latest. The exact date will be confirmed closer to the by-election day.

Election details

During the campaign, polling will be released through the press.

Campaigning will take place on /r/AusSimCampaigning.

Note on modifiers: Debates, press, etc will only count towards the result of this election if they are made before the start of the campaign. Subsequent posts will not be counted, and will only be included in the next national polls.

Note: Parties who intend to endorse a candidate shall do so before the end of campaigning. Endorsements must be on r/AusSimCampaigning. Failure to follow these stipulations will result in an endorsement being omitted.

Note: Parties and independent candidates running in the division of Sydney must provide a how to vote card on r/AusSimCampaigning before the end of campaigning. Failure to follow this stipulation could result in preferences being directed in a manner deemed appropriate in the electoral calculator.

Special note on campaigning

New South Wales is currently under a hard lockdown, making any form of campaigning extremely difficult for candidates, given that all COVID-19 rules must be followed. The AEC has discussed this, and has made the decision to change how campaigning will operate for this by-election. It is important to note that this is not a permanent change, but we will be seeing how this works and noting it for future campaigns.

Candidates will have two (2) posts throughout the campaign. Spreading these posts out throughout the campaign will be more effective. Parties will also have one (1) additional post for a leader or a designated party member. Endorsements and/or how to vote cards will not count towards post limits stipulated above.

Due to COVID-19, candidates will not be able to do much physical campaigning. Some ideas for campaigning that are COVID-safe include posters, sending out letters to voters, online speeches, social media ads, or newspaper op-eds.

The reduced weight of campaigning will be made up for by 2 debates - one a reddit live debate more in the mould of QANDA, where candidates will answer and debate a series of questions relating to national issues. The AEC will organise a debate time in consultation with all candidates, and every candidate is expected to attend.

A second debate will be more of a forum setting, with a reddit thread being created, and a series of questions placed in the comments by moderators for candidates to respond to. This may be done at any time during the campaign. The ideal response size to these questions would be a paragraph or two - explain your position, but don't be overly verbose.

Again, this might be a bit confusing, so if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask me. For the avoidance of doubt, all of these debates WILL BE MARKED AND WILL COUNT TO THE BY-ELECTION RESULTS.

Important information: Party leaders must submit their endorsed candidate in the form attached. Independent candidates can also use this form. Failure to fill out this form in a correct manner before Monday 5 July 12noon AEST will result in a candidate being disqualified from contesting the division of Sydney.

/u/model-amn

Electoral Moderator

Form for candidate submission