AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume 99, Issue 16653, 19 November 1925, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS.

METHOD OF VOTING. APPLICATION OF PREFERENCES. Inquiries have been made concerning the method of voting in the Australian elections. The elections are conducted under what is known as th. 3 preferential voting system. It is a simple method so far as the elector is concerned. The ballot paper contains the names of all the candidates for the constituency, and the voter must mark each name in the order in which he favours the candidates, otherwise his "paper would be informal. Thus, if there were four candidates—Black, Gold, Red, White—for one electorate, the voter would, for example, show his preference thus: — 2. —Black. •'{.—Gold. I.—^Rcd. 3.—White. If at the close of the poll it is found that, say, Red has polled a majority of first preference voles, he is declared elected, but if no candidate has scored an absolute majority of such votes, the candidate who received the lowest number of first preferences is eliminated and the No. 2 votes on his ballot paper are distributed. The process of elimination is continued until a candidate secures a majority on the respective preferences. It is possible, as was evidently the case with Mr. Theodore, for a candidate who has a substantial lead on the first count, to be defeated when the secondary votes arc distributed. In the recent elections in 64 electorates there were straight-out contests between Labour and either Nationalists or Country Party supporters, and in these the issue depended on the f?rst count. In 10 electorates there were three candidates, and in one four. It is the counting in these electorates which is delaying the announcement of the final results. The eleotion of Senators is conducted on similar lines, but as the electorate comprises the whole of one State and the number of candidates is larger, the counting is a much longer process.