Australia undertakes the preferential voting system and it amazes me how many Australians don’t understand how this system works. Like all systems, it has its pros and its cons. To me however the beauty of the preferential system is that you get to send a message to a major party but can ultimately direct your vote to them rather than their opponent through this system.
The instructions on how to vote correctly are on the election form so please read and execute accordingly to make sure your vote counts and your voice is heard.
The individual gets to choose where their preferences go NOT the party. Just because a party hands out a “How to Vote” card with a recommended strategy it does not mean that you have to follow it.
For example, let’s assume there are two major Parties, Major Party A and Major Party B.
In our example, you are not impressed with Major Party A and don’t feel like they are worthy of your vote (you would like to send them a message). In saying this you do not want to see Major Party B getting elected as you have less desire to see their policies in action.
Let’s also assume there are 4 minor parties. There are two minor parties that you wish to support: Party C and Party D. There are two minor parties that you don’t wish to support: Party E and Party F.
Let’s look at The House of Representatives as an example.
You must number every box through 1 to 6 for your preference to be noted and counted.
You would allocate your first and second choice to the minor parties that you want to support.
You would then allocate your third preference to the major party to whom you wish to send a message to, but would rather them win than their opponent.
You would then allocate the 4th and 5th preferences to the other two minor parties Party E and Party F.
Lastly, you would allocate the major party that you don’t want to see elected Party B.
Your preferences on the voting card would look like this:
- Party C
- Party D
- Party A
- Party E
- Party F
- Party B
How does the preference system work?
They count all of the 1st preference votes for each voter; they then remove the candidate with the least amount of number 1 votes. The people who elected that candidate would then have their second preference allocated to the respective candidate.
This process is continued until there are only two candidates left in the race where one candidate will receive over 50% of the votes and become the winner.
The Australian Electoral Commission has an instructional video and further information on their website: