Thanks to preferential voting, Australian House of Representatives members are each elected by an absolute majority of the voters in the electorate they represent.
Senate voting is pretty complicated. Here’s how preferential voting and proportional representation work – and how to make sure your vote is counted on election day.
The Senate voting system is complicated, as demonstrated by Fraser Anning being elected on just 19 votes.
AAP/Dan Peled
Scott Morrison has announced the Liberals will preference One Nation below Labor at the federal election. But that is unlikely to make a substantial difference to the make-up of the parliament.
Australia uses a method known as preferential voting to elect the House of Representatives.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
At federal elections, voters must cast a preference for all candidates in their lower house seat. Failure to do so, or failure to give an ordinal list of preferences, renders the ballot informal.
Malcolm Turnbull said he had made a call against preferencing the Greens in the national interest.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Labor is heaving a sigh of relief after Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement that the Liberals will put the Greens below Labor everywhere. In particular, the embattled Labor MP for Batman, David Feeney, under…
Greens leader Richard Di Natale (right) and Greens candidate for Grayndler Jim Casey are eyeing off the inner-Sydney seat.
AAP/Paul Miller
With the election result almost certain to be close, preferencing will play a key role, leaving the progressive parties in particular in a difficult bind.