You Can Never Waste Your Vote - Preferential Voting in Australia

[@PEGSInstitute]

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[@gladiammgtow4092]

Voting is a waste of time. I get my name crossed of to avoid the fine. They can all get stuffed.

[@gavinscolaro8715]

Really Great vid, will make sure to share it around election time

[@beatrute2677]

That’s interesting, because common thought is that is it’s the other way around. Thanks PEGS, this topic has been on my mind for a while now.

[@wraithwrecker_]

God I wish we had this in the US.

[@PEGSInstitute]

It's only marginally better than FPTP. Proportional representation is where it's at.

[@scottherf]

It is great but most voters here don’t get it. They’re swayed by how to vote cards and the simple answer is (a) put the standing member last if don’t agree (b) number every box

[@grasslipper8856]

And if you don’t like the policies of anyone and decide not to vote the Australian government will fine you and if you can’t pay it then they send the police to knock on your door and take you away to prison. And ounce you are on the electoral roll anyone legally can access your info for whatever purpose they need it for. So in any case with preferential voting you end up in all cases giving votes to people you don’t like, that’s Australia for ya.

[@richardboult2187]

You maybe need to mention, and make another video for, those seats, like Warringah, where tactical voting IS an issue.

[@PEGSInstitute]

Might not be our place to guide people how to vote tactically if they don't even understand preferential voting.

[@Aysthete]

@@PEGSInstitute There's a video about exactly this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q2GXZ6FroMh7l7s

[@Teeurbo]

Do preference deals matter in the Senate where you just put 1 above the line?

[@PEGSInstitute]

Only if you're voting in the Victorian Legislative Council. Group voting tickets have been abolished in all other elections.

[@Teeurbo]

@@PEGSInstitute Sweet, thanks for the answer. Appreciate it.

[@yeahnah3312]

bump

[@benneem]

I can see why you kept it to "vote for the candidates in the order you want them to be elected" in a simple introductory video but technically in any run-off election (including Australia's Instant Run-off Voting) there can be a confluence of candidates where a group of well meaning votes see a "Condorcet winner" excluded and a less favourable winner to those voters being declared! The easiest way to explain is in a 3 way election where there's a left wing, centre, and right wing candidate. Let's say the centre candidate comes 3rd and their preferences fling 50-50 both ways, and the right wing candidate wins. If a small portion of left wing voters had a time machine and could go back and vote centre instead now the left wing candidate comes 3rd and their preferences flow 80% to the centre and 20% right. This increased preference efficiency sees the right lose. This usually does not happen between the Greens and Labor voters as both groups of voters preference the other party at almost exactly the same %, but was a fairly strong phenomenon in the few elections where the Nick Xenophon Team/Centre Alliance got 20+% in some state and federal lower house seats. In a handful of seats votes that preference Labor above NXT/CA helped elect Liberals. NXT/CA were gathering a large cohort of votes from disaffected Liberals who nevertheless preference Liberal above Labor. Be wary of independents flippantly claiming that this phenomenon would apply to themselves, it's usually only knowable in hindsight! Candidates will lie to get your vote! Or will lie to themselves about their real chances of winning! The safest thing is to preference candidates in the order you want to see them elected and maybe NEXT election if there's a condorcet failure in this one vote strategically.

[@shnglbot]

Thanks for explaining that

[@Anti-CornLawLeague]

Be sure to rank the Liberals last and Labor second to last, no matter the candidates. I’d probably rank the Reason Party as my first and the Greens as my second if I were an Aussie.

[@nathat1176]

And being small ineffective parties they just pass their votes up the line to either Labor or Liberal who then ignore their preference requirements; and then it doesn't matter who you put last because they're now first. The Australian system is one of the worst on earth, made even worse here because it's illegal not to vote. We basically live in North Korea.

[@peterfilipovic]

​@@nathat1176 that makes absolutely no sense. People have full control over their own preferences

[@MarkTurner-ff8cz]

What an horrific system