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Voting
in Victoria
VOTING IS BOTH a right and a responsibility. Generally, every Victorian citizen over the age of 18 years is entitled to vote in Parliament of Victoria elections, but also obliged to do so. Compulsion is the price that citizens must pay to participate in the electoral process.
All Australian citizens in Victoria aged 18 years or greater must enrol as voters for Parliament of Victoria elections. This enrolment is called making an electoral claim. This claim will in turn enrol a citizen on both the State and Commonwealth electoral rolls and will entitle and oblige that person to vote in both federal and state general elections and by-elections.
At the most recent Victorian State general election held on 25 November 2006, 3,353,845 people were registered on the electoral rolls. Of that total, 92.72% voted.
Those who failed to vote must explain why. If their reasons are not valid they are liable for a fine of $50.
Every resident of Victoria lives simultaneously in two Parliament of Victoria electorates.
When a General Election is held, eligible voters are required to choose candidates for the Parliament's Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council.
Electorates for the Legislative Assembly are called Electoral Districts. There are 88 Electoral Districts in Victoria, each of which is represented by a single Member of Parliament. In a General Election voters must choose the candidate they want to represent their Electoral District in the Parliament.
Electorates for the Legislative Council are called Electoral Regions. There are 8 Electoral Regions in Victoria, each represented by five Legislative Councillors (making a total of 40 Upper House Members in the Parliament). Legislative Councillors now serve for fixed four year terms.
All of this means that at a General Election voters are asked to select one representative for the Legislative Assembly and five for the Legislative Council.
Casual vacancies may also arise in the period between general elections in both the Upper and Lower Houses. Vacancies have occurred in the past because of retirement (usually due to ill health), resignation or death while still in office. When a vacancy occurs, a by-election is held for the voters of the Lower House seat concerned. Vacancies to the Upper House are filled by a process of a Joint Sitting of both Houses. The party of the vacancy will nominate their replacement candidate.
Within the borders of any one Electoral Region are eleven Electoral Districts. Citizens with concerns can therefore either consult their local Member of the Legislative Assembly, or their five Members of the Legislative Council.
In addition there are Commonwealth electorates and local government wards or ridings. Usually citizens must also vote in all elections associated with these bodies. The boundaries used are not the same as those used by the Parliament of Victoria.
Victoria is the home of the secret ballot. This is a method of voting in which voters' ballot papers are completed in secrecy and then placed in a locked box until the close of the poll. This guarantees the integrity of each voter's choice.
This voting system was conceived in 1855 by Henry Samuel Chapman, a Member of Victoria's first Legislative Council. It was used for the first Parliament of Victoria General Elections that took place in spring of 1856.
For many years it was internationally known as the Victorian or the Australian ballot.
Since 1926 all Parliament of Victoria elections have been conducted on Saturdays; citizens cast their votes at a polling booth between 8.00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. From 1876 until 1926 voting took place on a single day, but that day could be any day of the week. From 1856 until 1876 voting took place over a period of days or even weeks.
Sometimes voters are unable to attend a polling place on the day of an election; ill-health, absence from Victoria, or extreme distance from a polling booth can all play a part in this. Such citizens are entitled to a postal vote. The State Electoral Office will send them a ballot paper which must be completed and posted to the State Electoral Office before voting ends the close of the poll on election day.
Some citizens may wish to vote on election day but are unable to attend a polling booth in their own electorate. Such voters may vote for their own candidates at another polling place outside their electorate. This is known as absentee voting.
Voting is compulsory. Compulsory voting was adopted in Victoria for Legislative Assembly elections in 1926 and for Legislative Council elections in 1935.
Since 1856 in Victoria there have been:44 Premiers
55 Parliaments
68 Ministries
55 General Elections (Legislative Assembly)
58 Rotational Elections (Legislative Council)
The preferential voting system is used for State and Federal elections. In this system voters rank the various candidates in order of preference .
The candidate most preferred by a voter is ranked first. The next preferred is ranked second and so on until all candidates are ranked in order of preference.
When voters attend the polling booth on election day, representatives of the various candidates hand out how-to-vote cards. These show how the candidates would prefer voters to fill in their ballot paper. Voters do not have to follow these suggestions.
If a ballot paper is not completed correctly, or is defaced in any way, it is deemed informal and is not eligible to be counted in the tally of votes. Until recently, if a voter did not place a number against every candidate, the ballot paper would be ruled informal. Now it is acceptable to omit the last number.
After the close of polls on election day, votes are tallied. If no candidate wins an absolute majority of votes (greater than 50 per cent), preferences are allocated.
This is a procedure in which the votes of the least favoured candidate are allocated to the more popular candidates on the basis of each voter's preferences (see diagram [22k]).
This process is continued until one candidate wins an absolute majority. In this way, even if some voters do not necessarily get the candidate they most preferred, they get their next most favoured candidate and so on until the new Member of Parliament is identified.
Some voters choose simply to fill in their ballot papers with '1' in the first square, and then follow the order down the page for the remaining candidates. This is known as a Donkey vote.
Proportional representation is a system which allocates seats in a legislature in proportion to the number of votes cast for each candidate. It does this by using multi-member electorates or electorates represented by more than one member. In addition, this system 'weights' voter preferences so that a first preference is 'worth more' than a second preference and so on.
To be elected, a candidate must gain a quota or proportion of votes. While the electoral system used for the Legislative Assembly tends to favour candidates of the major parties, the method used for the Legislative Council produces representation according to the number of votes a candidate receives, even if the candidate is an independent or a member of a minor party.
Preferential voting has not always been used in Victoria. Until 1911 in Legislative Assembly elections and 1921 in the Legislative Council, first-past-the-post, (a system in which the candidate with the most votes wins irrespective of whether it is an absolute majority) was used. This system is widely used in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
Until 1899, plural voting was used in Lower House elections and until 1938 in Upper House elections. This was a procedure in which those who held land to a certain market value were entitled to vote in as many electorates as that land was located.
An alternative method currently used in Australian Senate and Tasmanian House of Assembly elections, is proportional representation. This system allocates seats in a legislature in proportion to the number of votes cast for each candidate. It does this by using multi-member electorates or electorates represented by more than one member. In addition, this system 'weights' voter preferences so that a first preference is 'worth more' than a second preference and so on.
Once a candidate is identified as obtaining a majority of the votes cast, the ballot, or poll, is declared. All that then remains is for the successful candidate to be sworn in and take his or her place as a Member of the Parliament of Victoria.
Healey, K. ed, How are we Governed?, Spinney Press, Balmain NSW, 1999.
Hughes, C. A. and Graham, B. D., A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics, 1890-1964, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1968.
Jaensch, D., Election!: How and Why Australia Votes, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1994.
Macintyre, C., Political Australia: a Handbook of Facts, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1991.
Wright, R., A People's Counsel. A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856-1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992.
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