How To Preference: A Guide To Understanding

Voting in Australian elections isn’t as simple as ticking a box on a ballot paper. In fact, if you tick a box you’ve just wasted your vote! It will be declared informal. 

Australia uses a preferential voting system, which means voters number candidates on the ballot paper in order of their preference. This means placing a number ‘1’ next to the candidate you most want to see elected and numbering the remaining candidates in order of preference.