How it works & methodology
A result is only worth trusting if you can see how it was produced. Here's exactly how AussieTally verifies who's voting, keeps every vote anonymous, and makes the numbers tamper-evident.
1. Verified Australians only
To vote, you verify a mobile number (one-time SMS code) and an email address. Each phone number can register one account, which is how we keep it one person, one vote — without bots or duplicate accounts.
2. One person, one vote per issue
A separate registry records that you've voted on an issue so you can't vote twice — but it's kept apart from the vote itself (see below). You can see whether you've voted; no one can see how you voted.
3. Anonymous by design (not just by policy)
Your vote is never stored against your account. Instead it's tagged with a one-way code derived from your ID and that specific issue, using a secret that only the server holds. Because the issue is mixed in, your votes on different issues can't be linked together — and the code can't be reversed back to you. We couldn't deanonymise you even if compelled to.
4. Location without tracking
There's no GPS. You choose your state and city/region when you sign up. State-level breakdowns are always shown. A city-level breakdown only appears once at least 50 people in that city have voted on an issue — below that, small numbers could single someone out, so it stays hidden.
5. Tamper-evident, publicly verifiable results
On a regular schedule we take a snapshot of each issue's tallies and record a cryptographic hash (a unique fingerprint) of the data to a public, append-only log. If a result were ever altered after the fact, its fingerprint wouldn't match the published one — so anyone can check that what you see matches what was recorded.
6. AI used transparently
Some issues include AI-generated context or analysis to summarise the arguments. Anywhere we use AI, it's clearly labelled as AI-generated — it never decides results, which come only from real verified votes.
7. Open data
Results are public and downloadable, broken down by state and (where the 50-vote threshold is met) city. You don't have to take our word for the numbers — you can export and check them yourself.
8. Reviewed before publishing
Anyone verified can propose an issue for free, but every issue is reviewed before it goes live to keep the platform on-topic and free of abuse.