There is a lot of confusion around how preferential voting works, for example:

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2025 at 11:51am:


I prefer the term the Americans use: instant runoff voting. The system makes more sense if, instead of thinking of it as a single election, you think of it as multiple runoff elections. In each runoff, the least popular candidate is dropped from the ballot, and then there is another runoff election with a smaller pool of candidates.

In some places, they literally have runoff elections. For example the French presidency. You have to turn up to the polls twice there. But with instant runoff voting, you get the same outcome. The vote counters use your preference list to allocate your vote to your preferred candidate out of the remaining candidates still on the ballot.

There is no way that this can work against you. Your vote always goes to whichever candidate you prefer, out of those who are still in the running.

Hi Bobby, that is optional preferential. It is irrational when combined with preferential voting:

https://www.ozpolitic.com/electoral-reform/optional-preferential-voting.html

The problem is that once you get past the first round of instant runoff voting, you have a situation where there is a mix of optional and compulsory votes. It does not make sense to compel people to vote in the first round but not the last, as the number of rounds is fairly arbitrary.

Quote:


What is?

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No.

Labor won on preferences, ie they won the runoff election. Coincidentally, they also had the FPTP win on a national level.

Why is it that conservatives never complain about preferential voting when they're in power?

Well - 65.3% of voters did not vote for Labor - if they had wanted Labor they could have done so - marked 1.

No way should labor hold 93 seats and a stunning majority.

The People need more say over and more value from their vote.

One Man - One Vote - if I don't vote for you - I don't vote for you... and I don't vote for any major party at this time.

One Man - One Vote - not one vote split fifty ways - what is this - a new gender war or something?

freediver wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2025 at 5:28pm:



Wow - that makes me feel a lot safer.   

freediver wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2025 at 6:41pm:


Yes - but that's where I see a problem - we do not run a beauty contest or a popularity fest - our VOTE is supposed to determine who will represent us, not who they drink with down the Socialistes Club...

When people do not know where their vote is going - that vote loses value...all value - and thus should perhaps be discarded unless the voter indicates preferences.

Think of me - I live in a case-hardened Nationals seat - I vote for NO major party ... I put them last - so why should my vote end up with any of them who I put last?

Now you see the genesis of my increasing radicalism - and my ideas of splitting up the unwieldy and over-centralised states into Regional states more in keeping with their local people; changing the Senate to two senators for each New State to more correctly reflect the views of people across the land and not in the big cities - then you can throw in a Two State Solution to the never-ending Aboriginal problem (something off the table for Hamas for over two years now due to their intransigence and only clutched at by the Albos of this world for some perceived political benefit) - ascension of Gondwanamo Bay for the True Recalcitrant Criminal and Terrorist Types and it's placing in the middle of crocodile country guarded by Aboriginal Homelanders with traditional weapons... the need to control mass immigration ... Royal Commission into Judiciary and Jurisprudenjce .... banning of politicians and such from earning unearned millions Gillard-style, Rudd Missus-style and such from government initiatives and punishment for offending ... instant deportation of criminals and terrorists ...

The list goes on..

You need me at the helm of this country... you don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something.