Preferences: Curse or bonus?

In the Upper House, when you put "1" above the line, who are you really voting for?

Upper House: Northern Victoria Region Preferences

Upper House:  Western Victoria Region Preferences

Why All The Carry-on About Preferences?

On Saturday, who is elected to the Victorian Upper House will be decided for the first time using the 'Proportional Vote Counting System'.  

With this system of vote-counting,  a candidate doesn't have to have just over 50% of the total vote to be elected (as is the case in Lower House Preferential voting), they only need around 17% (a quota) of total formal votes cast. 

Once a candidate has a quota of 17% of the total votes, they are declared elected and any votes they have 'left over' (above 17%) go to whichever candidate is your next choice (preference) on your ballot paper. 

You can go to the Victorian Electoral Commission's website www.vec.vic.gov.au and go to State Elections, then Upper House to see an excellent slideshow of how proportional vote counting works.

With proportional vote counting, preferences play an absolutely critical role in outcomes. 

Someone who doesn't get many preferences from other candidates needs a huge amount of primary votes (i.e. the voters' first choice) to win. 

As we saw in last year's Council election, one particular candidate who received the most primary votes of all candidates in one ward still didn't win.  That high primary vote wasn't enough to be elected outright (a quota) and the candidate didn't get enough preferences from other candidates to reach a quota and be elected.

Another example of the 'quirkiness' of proportional vote counting is where a candidate can get very few primary votes (say 3%), but win because other candidates pass their votes over to that candidate through preferences.  This is how Family First's Senator Stephen Fielding was elected to Federal parliament in 2004.

It pays to know where your vote will go because if the candidate you put first is eliminated, they pass your vote on to someone else, potentially to someone you didn't want to vote for!  

That's because under the proportional vote counting system, your vote can be transferred on to other candidates several times.  With each transfer, your vote will be passed on to the person you put as your next preference, and if this happens often enough, your vote may eventually get to candidates you put as your least preferred (although the Victorian Electoral Commission says votes are never distributed to the person named last on a ballot paper).

So How Do I Vote For Upper House Candidates?

There are 3 ways to vote for candidates in the Upper House:

First, you can put a "1" above the line on the ballot paper.  That means you are voting for the party/candidates that appear under the "1" you have marked.  It's an easy way to vote but... you are leaving it up to others to decide who gets your vote.  That's why you usually only see how-to-vote advice for the Upper House showing how to vote above the line. The groups usually want you to vote above the line so their preference arrangements prevail.  If the party/candidates you voted for either don't get enough votes to win, or have some left over after winning, they then pass your vote on to whichever candidates they have preferenced.  That might not be candidates you prefer.

Second, you can sequentially number any five boxes below the line.  These candidates become your choices to fill the 5 vacancies in your electorate.  However, if none of these candidates are elected, your vote becomes what is known as 'exhausted'.  It doesn't pass to anyone else.  It stops where your numbers stop.

You may put a different number in as many boxes below the line as you choose or, put another way, you may choose to number the box of any candidate you prefer (as long as you number at least 5 candidates) and leave the rest blank.  Just make sure the numbers run in sequence (e.g. 1, 2, 3, etc.), and don't use any number twice!  Remember, your vote will go in the sequence you choose to the candidates you number, in the order you rank them, and won't be passed on any further than the candidates you have nominated.

This one make it easy to vote for just the people you want.

Third, you can put a different number in every box below the line.  This is very specific and, with 38 and 34 candidates in the Northern and Western Victoria regions (respectively), time-consuming.  The benefit is that you say where your vote goes.

Where Will My Vote Go - Upper House Preferences

MRRA has put together the preferences of each 'group' of Upper House candidates ('groups' consist of more than one candidate with the same affiliation, for example, a political party).  This information comes from the Victorian Electoral Commission website, and you can check any details there.

Please take a little time to check where your vote goes if you put "1" above the line.  Or you might want to take up the challenge of numbering your preferences below the line - whether its five boxes or the whole lot! 

We've included some boxes on our charts so you can choose your preferences if you want to. 

Groupings and candidates are shown in ballot paper order. 

NB. Candidates/parties who support protecting Macedon Ranges are shown in bold. 

Which Region Am I In?

You will vote in the Northern Victoria Region if you live in Sunbury or the southern parts of the Macedon Ranges Shire or  (e.g. Gisborne, Lancefield, Riddells Creek, Woodend, Romsey, etc.).  You will vote in the Western Victoria Region if you live in the northern parts of the Macedon Ranges Shire (e.g. Kyneton, Malmsbury, etc.).  Click here to see the electorate boundaries between the Northern and Western Victoria Regions.

Upper House:  Northern Victoria Region Preferences

Upper House: Western Victoria Region

* Split ticket: two choices   ** Preferences Split Within Group    # Preferences alternate between Family First and DLP    + Ungrouped