5 October 2004

House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is often called the 'People's House' or the 'Lower House'.

• Candidates in federal elections are elected using a full preferential voting system.
• Candidates stand for election for a particular electoral division (sometimes called a seat or an electorate).
• Members are elected for a maximum three-year term.
• There are 150 Members being elected at this election: 50 from New South Wales, 37 from Victoria, 28 from Queensland, 15 from Western Australia, 11 from South Australia, 5 from Tasmania, 2 from the Australian Capital Territory and 2 from the Northern Territory.

How votes for the House of Representatives are counted

To be elected, a House of Representatives candidate must get more than half the formal votes cast for the electoral division that they are contesting.

First preferences

First, all of the number '1' votes are counted for each candidate. If a candidate gets more than half the total of these number '1' votes (i.e. an absolute majority - 50% + 1), that candidate will be elected.

Second preferences

If, however, no candidate has more than half of the votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is excluded. This candidate's votes are then transferred to the other candidates according to the second preferences shown by voters on their ballot papers.

Further preferences

If still no candidate has more than half the votes, the candidate who now has the fewest votes is excluded and the votes are transferred according to the next preference shown for a candidate who has not been excluded.

This process continues until one candidate has more than half the total votes and is declared 'elected'.

An example

The example below will help show how it works. A more detailed example and more information is available on the AEC website at www.aec.gov.au.

An example

Three candidates Nick, Michael and Jenny stand for election. After the election the ballot papers are counted and there are 60,000 formal votes. Therefore the absolute majority needed to win the seat is 30,001 (50% +1).

Nick, Michael and Jenny received the following first preference or number '1' votes.

Nick	Michael	Jenny
15 000	23 000	22 000

Since nobody has gained an absolute majority, the person with the lowest number of first preferences is excluded. In this example, Nick is excluded and the second preferences on his ballot papers are then distributed to either Michael or Jenny. 6 300 of the total number of people who voted for Nick put the number 2 in the box for Michael. The remaining 8 700 put the number 2 in the box for Jenny.

This gives Michael a total of 29 300 and Jenny a total of 30 700.

Michael	Jenny
23 000	22 000
+ 6 300	+ 8 700
= 29 300	= 30 700

Now that Jenny has 30 700 votes, which is an absolute majority, she becomes the elected member.

This is a very simple example. The process could involve more than the two steps shown above. If there were more than three candidates, the candidates with the fewest votes will continue to be excluded and their preferences transferred, or distributed, until one candidate has an absolute majority.