After a second day of exit polling, Honi Soit has received a total of 532 responses. The results are similar to yesterday for both the Presidential race and SRC Council.
Today, 1211 ballots were issued, bringing the total of this election to 2078. At this stage last year, there were 1352 ballots issued, even less in 2022 with 1079 issued.
Khatib still maintains a strong lead on first preferences, with 43.6% of the vote. Fisher has increased his primary vote slightly but still remains in second place with 33.8%. Thorpe sits in third with a slightly lower 22.4%.
As occurred yesterday, many Liberal voters refused to take part in the exit poll, especially at JFR: as such, our poll may still underestimate the right.
The council totals for Grassroots, Free Palestine, Left Action, and Student Intifada gives the independent left council tickets a combined 52.2%, almost identical to their 51.9% yesterday, and still a strong lead over Labor and Liberal aligned tickets.
The Labor-aligned Impact, Standup, and Artistry hold only 19% of council votes, while the Liberal-aligned Reform, Save, and Colleges tickets are now trailing at 16.4%, losing their day one lead over Labor. With Reform USyd sitting at 1.1%, It looks like Honi Soit won’t be defunded any time soon!
The NUS vote is also stabilising, where the independent left wing tickets have secured 56.9%, with Grassroots leading the charge with 25.9%. The Labor tickets sit at 25.9% while Save, the only conservative ticket, holds 17.2%.
Locations, violations, and demonstrations
For the second day of elections, polling booths opened at Fisher Library, Manning House and the Conservatorium of Music, alongside Jane Foss Russell Plaza, which was open yesterday.
Students who voted early at Fisher Library were treated to consistent swooping by magpies who seemed to target students with hats. At one point an Electoral Official yelled at a student to take off their caps.
As the numbers stand, Fisher’s only path to victory — if numbers don’t change dramatically on the third day of polling — will be via second preferences from Thorpe voters.
Honi spoke to Thorpe early in the day at Manning, where he stated he was sceptical whether many of his own voters were preferencing Fisher. If Thorpe is right, the path to victory for Fisher going into day 3 is narrow. Based on current numbers, around 70% of Thorpe voters would need to place him second.
Campaigners also stated that the length of the campaigning period was making it difficult for them to consistently engage people. Honi saw evidence of that across the day, with one mature aged student telling Left Action and Impact campaigners arguing outside the Manning booth to “please calm down.” One student also discovered a new form of election apathy telling a Left Action member they “did not believe in democracy” when refusing a flyer.
Regardless, Grassroots campaigners were still in full force at the polling booths. When Luke Mesterovic (Grassroots) was asked if he was worried, he said “we are still fighting,” and as with other Grassroots members across the day, stressed how close the race was, and how important voting is.
After the release of yesterday’s exit poll, Grassroots and Left Action took to social media calling on supporters to not let “liberal preferences” decide the next election.
Gerard Buttigeg (NLS) said he was confident in Fisher getting up and the message Impact was sending to students, but would not comment on the ‘impact’ of Liberal preferences. While these preferences are certainly to the benefit of Fisher, NLS are banned from negotiating with the Liberals in their constitution and state they were not approached by Thorpe.
Some campaigns have found themselves in trouble today, with Honi hearing of at least one election breach. Impact was discovered to have a postgraduate campaigner, which was brought to the attention of Returning Officer Riki Scanlan by Grassroots.
This led to Scanlan checking the student IDs of the other Impact campaigners to make sure they were all undergraduates.
Concurrent to campaigning, Students Against War held a snap rally on the Law Lawns, condemning Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. Khatib attended and spoke at the protest, stating, “This is more important, building a movement is more important than putting leaflets in peoples hands”.
Fisher and an NLS contingent also attended the rally, whilst campaigning from all tickets continued alongside and further down Eastern Avenue.
The JFR polls were noticeably less busy today, as the Students Against War protest saw many campaigners leave the hustings. New polling locations also contributed to a much slower atmosphere.
87 students cast their votes at the Conservatorium of Music today, exceeding the 73 voters last year. The booth on Level 1 of the Atrium collected students streaming in and out of classes. Predictably, the numbers were paltry to the main campus. The satellite campus historically votes for ‘Artistry’, or other faculty focused tickets. Campaigners were largely absent, bar from two determined Grassroots campaigners and the Artistry candidate. While the Con ticket has previously been Labor aligned, Artistry and Grassroots largely worked together this year, with Artistry’s second council preference going to a Grassroots ticket.
Students were unsure if they were voting for CSA (Conservatorium Students’ Association) or for the SRC, with little clarity on the role of the organisation. One asked if “we [con students] are versing the main campus?”
This vote uptick and a comment from Alexander Poirer (current CSA President, SRC Intercampus Officer, Unity) suggests there is greater student engagement with voting this year. Poirer stated “a lot more students are actively thinking about it”, and “doing it of their own volition because they’ve seen it in Honi or social media”.
Student IDs
While exit polling, Honi saw students leave due to identification requirements. Students need a physical ID, login to the Sydney Uni app or a Certification of Enrolment found on Sydney Student. The digital ID card cannot be accepted as it doesn’t include the SID, meaning the officials cannot disambiguate students with the same name.
In state and federal elections, addresses are used for this disambiguation, making student elections an outlier for requiring ID.
If you want to vote tomorrow make sure to have your physical student ID or download the app.
Voting ends tomorrow with the Jane Foss Russell Plaza and Fisher Library open from 8.45am to 5.15pm and polling booths open at the Susan Wakil Health Building and Peter Nicol Russell Building from 10.45am to 3.15pm.
(Graph data collected by Honi Soit exit polling.)
