So the High Court challenge to the recent Senate voting reforms has been thrown out, meaning the changes will be in force during this election. The changes are designed to prevent micro parties from using preferencing deals to win seats despite having a tiny proportion of the vote - take for example Ricky Muir of the Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party, who won a senate seat while only holding 0.51% of the primary vote in 2013. The changes also make voting a bit less painful.
Traditionally, you had two choices for how you voted on the Senate ballot paper. You could vote above the line, meaning you checked the box for your preferred party, and your preferences would then be distributed according to the party’s Group Voting Ticket. You could also vote below the line, numbering every candidate in order of your preference.
In order to win a seat, a candidate had to reach a ‘quota’ of votes, based on how many seats were up for election, usually around 14% in a usual half-senate election. Similar to the House of Representatives, the candidates with lowest proportions of the vote are eliminated, and their votes redistributed according to second preferences, and so on. Micro parties, very small parties often devoted to a single issues - think Family First and the like, could use this system to allocate votes to one another and maximise their chances of winning a seat.
If you’re just enrolling to vote this election, you may have never seen a Senate ballot paper, and you might wonder what advantage above the line voting has, since many people chose to do so without being aware of what preferences they were agreeing to. If you have seen a Senate ballot paper, you know exactly what the issue is. There’s usually a fair number of people running in Senate elections, and the ballot papers can be huge. In 2013, the NSW ballot had 110 candidates running for 6 available seats, and the ballot paper was over a metre long.
As you can imagine, numbering every single candidate on that paper was a huge task and there was a high risk of voters making a mistake, rendering their vote invalid. This is an extreme example, but having somewhere around 50 candidates is fairly common. Voting below the line was a pain in the arse.
So what the hell has changed?
Essentially, the group ticket system has been made more transparent. You can still vote above the line, however you have to number at least 6 of the boxes according to your preferences. The candidates for each party are arranged into columns for each party, and will receive your preferences according to the order they’re in below the line, and then on to the party you selected second, and so on. You can see where your vote will go by looking at the ballot paper, rather than having to go looking for each party’s group ticket.
Voting below the line is greatly simplified. You still number the candidates in order of preference, but you only have to number 12 candidates for the vote to be counted. You can still go on and number every candidate on the ballot if you like, as long as you have at least 12 candidates numbered.
More information + a nice video explaining the changes can be found on the AEC’s website, as well as a ‘practice ballot’ tool. The ABC’s Election Guide has information on the candidates for each district and electorate, along with the voting history of that electorate. You can check which federal district and state electorate you’re in via the AEC.
Again, if you are turning 18 or haven’t enrolled to vote, you have to do so by May 23rd. The deadline also applies to updating your details. At that point the electoral roll closes and all details in it are final. You can enrol online via the AEC’s website. Voting is compulsory in Australia and if you aren’t enrolled or don’t show on election day you can be fined.
