Every Vote Counts - Election 2004
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Section One: An Election is Called
Section Two: The Issue of Writs
Section Three: The Countdown
Section Four: Election Day
Section 5
Introduction
This video is set against the background of the 2004 Federal Election. It has been designed to explain to students from upper primary onwards how an election is organised and conducted.
Who votes? Who nominates as candidates? How are votes cast and counted?
These notes have been designed to support educators with their Civics and Citizenship programming by offering ideas for classroom discussion and suggestions for further activities.
For easy reference, the narration has been reproduced as the central text of this booklet with ideas linked to the video’s content in the appropriate places.
Alongside the narration you will see boxed numerals from nought to fourteen, these are the elapsed minutes of the video and, using the counter of your VCR, will help you to locate particular segments of the program.
The teacher's notes provide support for educators in introducing the basic structure of our Parliamentary system and how we go about electing our representatives to that Parliament. The notes describe the various stages of a Federal election and include a glossary of electoral terms.Before screening the video
Some general discussion of the context in which elections are held may usefully set the scene for showing the video. Points that could be introduced include:
- Are all governments elected? If not, what other means are there for determining who forms a government?
- Are all elections fair? Responses to this question might include such issues as:
- restrictions on voter eligibility;
- coercion and corruption;
- government control of media and advertising;
- access to voting places;
- existence of an impartial and transparent counting process.
- This video is about a Federal election – what other types of election do we have in Australia?
