Poll: Voting System

Essential Research

Comment: 48% to 44% of voters favour a preferential voting system over a first past thial te post ballot.   Those favoriong an Optional Preferential ballot do not realise or undertand the impact of optional preferential voting on the counting of the results of the election.  In 2010 the Victorian Electoral Commission advocated that voters only number one to five below-the-line.  The commission should be advocting that voters allocate a preference for all candidates in order of the voters' preferred choice.  In advoctaing the minimum the Commision devalued the value of the vote and became an active particpant in the electiion outcome as oposed to being independent and unaligned.



Q. Which of the following voting systems would you prefer when voting for the Federal House of Representatives.

• A preferential voting system where voters rank all candidates in order of preference.
• An optional preferential system where voters can rank one, some, or all candidates in order of preference.
• A “first past the post” system, where voters only vote for one candidate and the candidate with the most votes wins.

	Total	Vote Labor	Vote Lib/Nat	Vote Greens
Preferential	22%	31%	18%	30%
Optional preferential	26%	26%	24%	33%
First past the post	44%	40%	53%	31%
Don’t know	7%	4%	4%	6%

Of the three voting options given, 44% favoured “first past the post”, 26% optional preferential and 22% the current preferential system.
Optional preferential was most preferred by those aged under 35 (35%) while older groups strongly favoured first past the post (50% of aged 35-54 and 54% of aged 55+).