Who knows when the next Federal Election will be?  Who even knows who the Prime Minister will be at the point when the election is called?  For that matter, who knows – or, indeed, cares – who the Deputy PM will be?  But while Canberra is awash in a sea of chaos, leadership challenges, and frankly astonishing bouts of political stupidity, we do have at least some certainty on a State level.

For example, we know that the Victorian State Election will be held on Saturday, November 24, 2018.

We also know that if you want to vote in that election you need to enrol to vote by 6pm on Tuesday, November 6th, 2018.

As of November 12, the list of candidates is complete, and we know the order in which they will appear on the ballot.  You can see the ballot for your region (Upper House seat) here, and the ballot for your district (Lower House seat) here.  These pages will also tell you where you can go to vote.

Victoria still has group voting tickets, which determine where your vote will go if you vote above the line.  You can find a list of all the tickets here.

A brief disclaimer on these opinions.  Regular readers of this blog already know that I lean heavily left, politically speaking.  I’m a feminist, I’m pro-LGBTQIA rights and marriage equality, I’m a Christian (with some fairly strong opinions on ostensibly Christian political parties), I’m pro-science and pro-environment, I’m anti-racism, and I think our current treatment of refugees is disgusting.  I’m not going to pretend to not be any of these things, partly because I think integrity is important, partly because it’s boring to write about politics without expressing opinions, and partly because I am extremely bad at disguising my political leanings anyway.  Really, honesty is the best policy here.

And speaking of honesty, what *is* important to me in writing these blog posts is honesty and transparency.  I will always link to the websites of parties I’m writing about, and where their policies are tricky to find, I’ll do my best to link to the other sources I find for them.  So, while my conclusions will certainly be influenced by my biases and my beliefs, the actual information I provide will be as accurate as I am able to make it, and I’ll make it as easy as possible for you to check it.  (I also welcome comments from independents and representatives of political parties – though if you are actively abusive, I will stop letting your comments through eventually.)

My goal is to make sure that you can get something from these posts even if you disagree with all my political leanings.  I think my proudest moment on this blog was when someone from the Shooters and Fishers Party turned up in my comments and told me – very politely! – that my conclusions were completely wrongheaded, but that I’d described his party’s policies and beliefs well.

My secondary goal is to make reading about political parties entertaining.  This is, to be honest, as much for my sake as yours – writing these commentaries generally means getting up early to write before work in the morning, writing at work during my lunchbreak, and staying up late at night to write yet more posts.  I think at the last election I calculated I’d written over 100,000 words in two weeks.  So yes, I get silly.  If I see a pun, I will make it.  There will be sarcasm and frivolity and, if necessary, commentary on the songwriting ability of the candidates.  This doesn’t mean I don’t take your political party seriously.  It means I am sleep deprived and ridiculous.

But what I want most is for people to vote intelligently for the parties (or independents!) and policies that they believe in, even if I personally think that their beliefs are as wrongheaded as the Shooters and Fishers think mine are.  In my view, democracy can only benefit from people voting with both their minds and their hearts engaged, and with a desire to make their corner of the world a better place.

So, without further ado – people of Victoria, your candidates!

Political Parties Registered for this Election (Legislative Council)

Where possible, I am linking to the Victorian Branch page for each party.  Where there is no Victorian page, I have used the Federal page.

Grouped Independents – South Eastern Metropolitan Region

CHAWLA, Tarang and LEE, Nicole ~ Facebook page for Tarang Chawla ~ Commentary

Ungrouped Independents – Eastern Victorian Region

FOZARD, Michael Stewart ~ Facebook page for Michael Fozard ~ Commentary

Ungrouped Independents – South Eastern Metropolitan Region

HINE, Stewart ~ Official Website ~ Commentary
MACK, Peter ~ Commentary
SINGH, Bobby ~ Facebook page ~ Commentary

Ungrouped Independents – Western Metropolitan Region

GRIMA, Diana ~ Facebook page ~ Commentary
MAJDLIK, Kathy ~ Commentary

Ungrouped Independents – Western Victorian Region

PONGRACIC, Karl Jozef ~ Facebook Page ~ Commentary

Independents Registered in Pascoe Vale

The political parties running candidates in Pascoe Vale are the Liberal Party, Labor, the Greens, the Victorian Socialists and the Animal Justice Party.  Which really tells you all you need to know about Pascoe Vale!

TIMPANO, Francesco ~ Facebook page ~ Stranger Facebook page ~ Commentary
YILDIZ, Oscar ~ Website ~ Commentary
KAVANAGH, John ~ Website ~ Commentary

Overview of preferences in Pascoe Vale

Other posts relating to this election

P.S. If you like my work and would like to support me in my quest to replace my dying computer with one that is more reliable, you can visit Kofi.com and buy me a hot chocolate (I don’t drink coffee) to say thanks.  But for goodness sake, don’t feel that you have to – I’d be doing this research for my own vote anyway, so I might as well share it with you.