ROK: Australia is a country of which I am very proud, though even the best countries have their quirks. One of ours is the almost insane proliferation of minor parties in the Australian political system. To our friends overseas this will make little sense. Doesn’t voting for a minor party simply split the vote? But we have a curious method to get around the duopoly that is the two-party system.
Australia has a preferential voting system, meaning that rather than ticking a box, we number the parties on the ballot from first to last. When the ballots are tallied, they go through several rounds in an instant run-off process. The last candidate is eliminated and their second choice preferences distributed to the rest. This process is then repeated until only two candidates remain, deciding the winner.
While a bit confusing, this system is a boon to everyone from the hippie socialist to the ardent neo-nazi. It keeps the major parties paying attention to the fringes, or else risk bleeding votes. This is why the Greens for instance, win around 10% of the vote in Australian elections, while in America they’re lucky to win 0.5%.
The flip-side of course, is that since any man and his dog (with $500 and 500 signatures) can start their own political party, choice abounds. Last election, the NSW senate ballot paper had 110 names listed and was more than a meter long. The current list of registered parties can be found here and the vote will take place on July 2.
So who to choose?
Choose the Kangaroo!
Regardless of what the electorate wants, only the candidates chosen by the Party elite should stand any chance of winning.
Australia should adopt the American way.
That was interesting. I had no idea. From the look of the ballot in the article (if it is real) it appears that people actually have to write real numbers in. That would preclude probably half of Democrat voters in this country who cannot read or write from voting.