donkey voter

plural donkey voters · alternative donkey-voter

1. AustraliaA voter who casts a donkey vote.

   We can estimate the numbers of donkey voters because the ALP Senate candidate Healy headed the Senate list at the same election.

   1967, Raewyn Connell, Florence Gould, Politics of the Extreme Right: Warringah 1966, page 89

   2 more examples

   One is the donkey vote, which is thought to account for three per cent. of all votes cast. Donkey voters mark their papers one-two-three straight down the ticket.

   1963, Nation, numbers 110-134, page 83

   The Senate vote for any party in any State will benefit from a ‘windfall’ from the ‘donkey voters’ (ie those who vote straight down and across the ballot) if that party wins the first place on the ballot paper — which is decided by lot.

   1983, Leslie Finlay Crisp, Australian National Government, page 219