The government could save as much as $122m on a postal vote by looking to existing, more representative, pollsIf the government really wanted to determine whether or not Australians support ​marriage equality, it might be better off commissioning an opinion poll rather than running a voluntary postal vote. According to the government, the postal vote on same-sex marriage would be voluntary, cost as much as $122m, and would run for two months. But a voluntary postal vote may not be representative of Australian views on the topic. I haven’t been able to find much on this with postal votes, but Dr Kevin Bonham has an excellent, in-depth blog post on the various ways the postal vote might be skewed. As it turns out we already have a large, government-funded survey that has asked Australians for their views on marriage equality.

Source: The Guardian August 09, 2017 00:45 UTC