Electoral Results
Despite running in "almost every election of the past two decades" in no election has the CEC ever garnered more than 2% of the vote.
At the 2001 federal election, CEC candidates polled extremely low totals; for example, in the New South Wales Senate elections, the CEC ticket polled 2,370 votes out of 3.8 million votes cast.
The party fielded candidates for the Senate and most House of Representatives seats at the 2004 federal election. In some seats it distributed glossy full-colour pamphlets, setting out its views, as well as billboards and television advertising in some areas, suggesting that the party has access to sources of finance greater than its small electoral base would suggest. Australian Electoral Commission records indicate that the CEC has successfully raised several million dollars since 2001.
Despite this fundraising, the CEC polled extremely low totals again in 2004. The day after the election preliminary figures showed that the CEC had 34,177 votes, or 0.35 percent of the national vote, in the House of Representatives. Out of the 95 electorates in which they were represented, the CEC came last in 80 electorates.
Between September 2005 and January 2006 The Australian reported upon alleged infiltration by the CEC of the National Civic Council (NCC), claiming the latter organisation's dismissal of its state executives over the Christmas 2005 period was an internal coup. CEC chairman Noelene Isherwood, while denying outright infiltration, was cited by The Australian's reporter Greg Roberts on 17 September 2005 as saying: "We know that a lot of their members are supporters of our ideas. That's good to see."
At the 2007 federal election, the CEC's previous form continued. The number of first preference votes in the lower house was 27,879 (0.22 percent), and 8,677 (0.07 percent) in the upper house, both results were 0.14 percent down from 2004. However, in the Northern Territory Senate count where a quarter of their vote came from, the CEC received 2.01 percent of the vote, overtaking the Australian Democrats. Territory candidates, however, require a much higher quota to gain election than candidates in the states.
Read more about this topic: Citizens Electoral Council
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