#voteflux.org

Prior reviews: federal 2016

Running where: NSW, VIC, WA.

What I said before: “Yes, VOTEFLUX.ORG | Upgrade Democracy! is the name that will appear on ballots. Yes, it makes me want to punch myself in the face too.”

What I think this year: Yes, it’s that wet fart of a techbro electoral thought bubble—representatives who have no policy and who will vote on bills in accordance with the outcome of polls on an app. Stunningly, not only do we have multiple parties espousing this idea, but they have also managed to endure an entire electoral cycle to again fight it out for the misguided-futurist vote again.

I have already had a go at this nonsense in a past review of the other party to propose it. I do not feel the need to repeat myself. Flux continue to peddle bad history and ahistorical claims about how “Parliament is a 19th century power structure that no longer works in the modern age” (spoiler: parliament does not date from the nineteenth century, nor are its forms and functions outdated). I went after that in the 2016 review linked at the start of this review, so again no need to repeat myself. This is a party proposing a bad idea and justifying it with utter balderdash. Don’t waste your time, no matter how slick a website they might have.

Also, for the love of god, if you are going to call your party Flux, just fucking put that on the ballot, don’t resort to registering something that looks as dumb as “VOTEFLUX.ORG | Upgrade Democracy!”

My recommendation: give Flux a weak or no preference.

Website Main platform in one sentence Perhaps the party with the liveliest name of all, VOTEFLUX present an online system that gives power back to the people – but insist on being different to Online Direct Democracy.

Main policies Yes, two of these parties exist. If you cast your mind back to about a week ago, you will recall when we covered Online Direct Democracy. VOTEFLUX are, dare I say, almost identical. They also aim to give voters the power to direct their MPs’ and senators’ votes on every bill that comes through parliament, through interactive technology. However, VOTEFLUX might have an advantage over ODD. They have noted a few flaws in the system and have come up with ways to address them. The Flux system allows you one vote per bill. However, you don’t have to cast it every time – if you feel like it, you can give your vote to another person, or save it up so that you have a more powerful voice on the issues that matter most to you. The Flux system has a lot of IT power behind it, designed to minimise hacking and skewing of votes. While on face value VOTEFLUX and ODD have the same system, Flux does seem to be a better model built on the same principle.