Victorian election map: What voters in every seat think about the big issues

Updated

Explore our interactive map to see what voters in each seat think about the key issues of the Victorian election campaign, based on their responses to Vote Compass.

FAQ

What is this?

The ABC launched Vote Compass Victoria on Sunday November 2, in the lead-up to the state election.

It is a tool that allows voters to see how their views compare to the parties' policies.

The data gathered about voters' views on the issues were weighted across a range of demographic factors using the latest population estimates to be a true representation of opinion at the time of the field.

The map is based on 61,691 respondents to the Vote Compass application between November 2 and November 21, 2014.

Vote Compass is not a random sample. Why are the results being represented as though it is a poll?

Vote Compass is not a poll. It is fundamentally an educational tool intended to promote electoral literacy and stimulate public engagement in the policy aspect of election campaigns.

That said, respondents' views as expressed through Vote Compass can add a meaningful dimension to our understanding of public attitudes and an innovative new medium for self-expression. Ensuring that the public has a decipherable voice in the affairs of government is a critical function of a robust democracy.

Online surveys are inherently prone to selection bias but statisticians have long been able to correct for this (given the availability of certain variables) by drawing on population estimates such as Census micro-data.

The ABC applies sophisticated weighting techniques to the data to control for the selection effects of the sample, enabling us to make statistical inferences about the Australian population with a high degree of confidence.

How can you stop people from trying to game the system?

There are multiple safeguards in place to ensure the authenticity of each record in the dataset.

Vote Compass does not make its protocols in this regard public so as not to aid those that might attempt to exploit the system, but among standard safeguards such as IP address logging and cookie tracking, it also uses time codes and a series of other measures to prevent users from gaming the system.

Topics: elections, state-parliament, states-and-territories

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