Election night counting is not “rigged’ in favour of the major parties

^{By Ellen Blake}

People who misunderstand how the vote counting system works on election night are using social media to claim the AEC is “rigging” the election by only distributing preferences to the major parties and ignoring other candidates.

One Facebook user wrote: “They completely ignore all your preferences.” Another said: “When it comes to your second preference – they ignore what’s on your ballot sheet and it goes to either Labor or Liberal.” 

Users suggested that this was evidence of the AEC ignoring the will of voters, but these claims misunderstand Australia’s voting system and the electoral commission’s counting process.

Australia uses the preferential voting system to determine who wins seats and forms government.

When casting a vote in the House of Representatives, voters must number every box on their ballot paper in order from their first preference to least desired candidate.

Votes cast at polling booths are then counted on election night. A candidate must receive more than 50 per cent of the vote – an absolute majority – to be elected as the representative for the seat.

When votes are counted, polling officials first sort the ballot papers by first preference votes counted for each candidate.

Counting officers then conduct what is called a two-candidate-preferred (TCP) count between the two leading candidates, in an effort to quickly give the community an indication of who will form government. 

According to the AEC website: “The TCP count is a mandatory requirement and is conducted to give an early indication of who is most likely to win each seat, as this is not always clear from first preferences.”

The two candidates whose votes are counted first, are determined by the AEC in the lead up to the election, based on previous results in the electorate or media coverage. In most cases, this count is between the Labor and Coalition parties.

However, in instances where the two leading candidates differ from the candidates determined by the AEC, the AEC restarts the TCP count and redistributes preferences to the new top candidates in the days following the election. 

For example, the AEC tweeted it had restarted the TCP count in the New South Wales electorate of Richmond to reflect the increased vote for the Greens candidate.

After the TCP count, a distribution of preferences is conducted in every seat, even when a candidate has received an absolute majority of votes, before the electoral commission declares a winner.

Candidates with the least number of votes are removed from the count with their vote transferred to the second preference on the ballot papers until one candidate receives an absolute majority of votes.

Every House of Representative ballot receives “fresh scrutiny”, meaning a mandatory secondary count of the votes occurs regardless of the margin, as legislated under the Electoral Act. This mandatory secondary count provides validation of the original, indicative count. Fresh scrutiny commences from the Monday after election night, according to the AEC website.

The AEC also says it is committed to transparency: “As with all stages of the counting process, the election night count is fully open to party-appointed scrutineers and all results are published on the AEC’s tally room in real time." Party appointed scrutineers can monitor and inspect ballots during the counting process.

_{Reference image source: Wikimedia Commons.}