Kanye West and Donald Trump have given it a good run, but in the end neither could quite sway enough voters to pick up any seats in recent Queensland local council elections.
Trump’s tilt at the US Republican candidature gained momentum among Queenslanders, and Yeezy’s own campaign for President in 2020 kicked off in style up north over the weekend.
.@kanyewest‘s #yeezus2020 campaign already gathering votes thanks to a few Qld democracy lovers. #qldvotes #bnevotes pic.twitter.com/2AIogep0vQ
— Jorge Branco (@JorgeBrancoBNE) March 21, 2016
The two gained support among an increase in creatively wasted or ‘donkey’ votes in the elections, which also saw Queenslanders make their indifference towards the elections palpably clear with strong push also coming for deceased psychedelic rocker Jimi Hendrix and North Queensland Cowboys NRL half-back Jonathan Thurston.
Meanwhile, in Townsville the mayoral race is going as predicted… #qldvotes pic.twitter.com/8N0ly7JnG7
— Jono (@nqc_jono) March 19, 2016
Ex-PM Kevin Rudd also picked up a a few votes himself…
Kevin 07 got a few votes at my booth @SteveAustinABC @612brisbane
— Michael Powell (@GumbyAu) March 20, 2016
Commissioner for the Electoral Commission Queensland (ECQ) Dermot Tiernan told the ABC that more than 3 per cent of the votes counted being informal votes is above average. “We like to target around 2.2 to 2.5 per cent”.
Both Trump and West also appear unfortunately to have gained less votes than people voting by connecting the dots on their ballot papers “We’ve got a bit of work to do with the Queensland community”, he said. “Most people literally played join-the-dots and drew a line through everything”.
