The Senate ballot paper is divided into two sections by a horizontal line. You can choose to vote 'above the line' by placing the number '1' in one of the boxes in that section or by voting 'below the line' by numbering all the boxes in that section.

If you choose to vote ‘below the line’ you need to allocate all of your preferences, or votes, to all of the candidates in the section ‘below the line’ by numbering all the boxes.

However if you choose to vote ‘above the line’ it means that your preferences, or votes, will be allocated in accordance with the group voting ticket that the party or group you selected has lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). This means instead of you numbering all the boxes ‘below the line’ the AEC will automatically allocate your preferences, or votes, in the predetermined order outlined in their group voting ticket.

A group voting ticket looks similar to a completed Senate ballot paper. A booklet with all the group voting tickets for your state can be viewed at your polling place or online as below, they clearly show the order in which the party or group will allocate your preferences, or votes. Each party or group can register up to three group voting tickets.

Group voting tickets by State

• NSW [PDF 464k]
• VIC [PDF 365k]
• QLD [PDF 537k]
• WA [PDF 888k]
• SA [PDF 306k]
• TAS [PDF 118k]
• ACT [PDF 155k]
• NT [PDF 82k]

Note: Due to the size of Senate ballot papers in some states, large group voting tickets have each page of the published document spread over 2 pages (which are considered to be the same page number) to accommodate viewing in the pdf viewer, therefore the page numbering in the viewer is NOT consistent with the actual page numbers listed in the index of the group voting ticket. The actual page numbers of the published document are listed at the bottom of each page.