DEAR News of the Area,

AUSTRALIA is very fortunate to have preferential voting as it means you don’t risk wasting your vote when you vote for an independent or small party candidate – your second and later preferences mean your vote will still count if your preferred candidate’s first preference vote numbers are low and they are eliminated.

When we vote for the House of Representatives in a federal election, full preferential voting is the system, meaning that for a vote to be valid a number indicating our preferences is needed in every square.

In NSW state elections, optional preferential voting is allowed for the Legislative Assembly, meaning that placing the number 1 beside the candidate of our choice is sufficient for a vote to be valid and numbering the other squares is optional.

NSW is now the only state using an optional preference system.

To make sure our vote is fully effective in an optional preference system, we need to fill in our preferences beyond our first preference.

Unfortunately, about half of voters don’t number all their preferences and this favours the prominent candidates.

We can support the candidate we cheer for, but if they are unsuccessful then marking our preferences means we still have a say in which of the leading candidates gets elected.

Regards,
John GRAY,
Coffs Harbour.