2010 Election links

Like I did with the 2007 election (man what have I been doing with my time? I have been blogging longer than Rudd has been Prime Minister), I thought I would post some links for this election.

By far I think the ABC has the best website for the election. (I think its way better than SMH's Federal Election page, or the Australian's page (which does have some nice graphs)) On the ABC site you can see real time data and trends, such as twitter comments, bookies odds and other polls on their campaign pulse page; you can see where Abbot and Gillard are travelling to on their interactive map; and they have a live blog of what they are up to.

The bookies have Gillard to win, and in all honesty I wouldn't argue against the people who have done the maths and are willing to put their money where their mouth is. But from that ABC election calculator, it looks like Abbot only needs a 2.4% swing, which to me doesn't sound like a lot (maybe I am ignorant of the size of the margin). Also on the ABC pendulum page, it seems that 5 of the ALP's very marginal seats have gotten new borders this time round, which might change things up a bit. (I am unsure if their neighboring seats are also ALP fans...if they are not, then it might be interesting). Where I am, the ACT, I don't think anything interesting will happen.

Google haven't made any 2010 election gadgets or pages yet, like they did in 2007, but I am guessing there is still time. The election was only called two days ago...

Also here is a nice page to check your electoral enrolment.

This year I am going to be in Katoomba on the 21st of August, so I have to vote early... If only I could find a nice site about where I can do that, as I couldn't find it easily on the Australian Electoral Commission website. (There was a sentence about how you can vote early, but no information about where I can do that.)