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House of Representatives                                Ch 3                                                 p 92

Method of voting

With every system of election there are two quite separate and distinct processes, the ‘voting’ process and the ‘scrutiny’ process, that is, the counting. The first is performed by the voters in the marking of their ballot papers while the second is carried out by the officials responsible for the conduct of the election. The procedure for the scrutiny of votes in House of Representatives elections is provided for in the electoral law. ¹

Until 1918 the ‘first-past-the-post’ voting process was used. This is one of the simplest forms of voting as it requires the voter to indicate a vote for only one candidate and the candidate with the greatest number of votes (that is, a relative majority) is elected.

The voting process now in use is a preferential one, usually referred to as ‘preferential voting’ (also known as the ‘alternative vote’ or ‘contingent vote’ system).

The preferential voting system used is an absolute majority system where for election a candidate must obtain more than 50 per cent of the votes in the count. The voter is required to mark his or her vote on the ballot paper by placing the number one (1) against the name of the candidate of first choice, and to give contingent votes for all the remaining candidates in order of preference by the consecutive numbers 2, 3, 4 and so on; all squares on the ballot paper must be numbered, although one square may be left unnumbered, in which case the blank square will be deemed to be the voter’s last preference, provided a first preference has been indicated. ²

The first step in obtaining the result of the election is to count the first preferences marked for each candidate. If a candidate has an absolute majority (that is, fifty percent plus one) on the first preferences or at any later stage of the count, that candidate is declared elected. The next step is to exclude the candidate with the fewest votes and sort those ballot papers to the next preference marked by the voter. This process of exclusion is repeated (to achieve the two party preferred figure) until there are only two candidates left in the count, even though one of those candidates may have been declared elected at an earlier stage. ³

Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 , s. 274.

Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 , ss. 240, 268.

Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 , s. 274.