Notes to poem: In Australia, voting is compulsory. Voting hours are from 8am to 6pm. A voter who may
be absent from his home electorate must still cast a vote wherever he is. This is done by making an
absent vote or a postal vote.
Every candidate standing for a election has to pay a fee. The fee is refunded if a moderate percentage
of votes is attained otherwise it is forfeit. A candidate who fails to regain his fee is said to have
lost his sinker, an apt expression borrowed from fishing, for 'To lose one's sinker' whilst fishing is
a disaster!
The votes are counted and distributed by a procedure called Hare-Clark. The process sometimes takes
several days and often produces surprise results.
Superficially, Hare-Clark is a complicated method but it is very fair, possibly the fairest
voting system in the world. No vote is wasted as happens with other systems. A voter who votes for
a candidate who has little chance of being elected does not simply have an ineffectual or wasted
vote. In effect, he is given a fresh vote or votes minus his earlier preferred selections. This is
brought about by requiring a voter to vote for at least 5 and sometimes all candidates on the
voting paper by writing the numbers 1, 2, 3, et seq, in the boxes alongside the candidates' names.
Preferential voting is used which means the voter enters the numbers in the order of his/her
preference. It can be thought of as a race in which a voter sets down the complete order in which
he would wish the race to finish.
To be elected, a candidate must secure sufficient votes, called a quota. A quota is calculated
using the formula: Quota = valid votes divided by (the number of vacancies + 1) + 1. For example,
assume there are 50000 valid votes and four to be elected, then 50000/(4 + 1) + 1 equals a quota
of 10001. When all of the No.1 votes have been counted, one or more candidates may have attained
a quota. It is possible, however, that not even one may have attained a quota.
Assume there is a candidate with more than a quota, then he is elected. The number of votes he
has in excess of a quota is then shared out to each of his second preferences in proportion to
their number, I'll call it procedure (1). This may cause another candidate to be elected,
in which case procedure (1) will then be applied to that candidate's excess.
If there are still vacancies after completing procedure (1) a different procedure –
procedure (2), is applied. With (2), the candidate who now has the least number of votes is
eliminated and his votes are given to the No.2 preferences on his voting papers. This will mean
that procedure (1) will need to be reapplied to distribute the 'new' excess votes of the
elected candidates. Procedures (1) and then (2) continue until all vacancies are filled.
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