Preferential voting in Gold Coast federal electorates
Preferential voting in Moncrieff
You can see the preferences flow for the other Gold Coast electorates also:
- Fadden preference flows
- Moncrieff preference flows
- McPherson preference flows
Below is a data visualisation showing how preferential voting works, using the examples of some recent elections in the Moncrieff electorate.
Who determines preferences?
The important thing to remember is you, the voter determine your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, ... preferences. "How-to-vote" cards are just suggestions. You don't have to follow them, and if you do, you may end up helping vote for someone you don't really want as your representative.
Candidate order, percentages and colours shown
The order of the candidates on the chart is the ballot paper order. (This is important because some people perform a "donkey vote", where they just number their ballot paper starting from 1 at the top. Very irresponsible.)
Percentages given are based on the total number of formal votes for each candidate. (Informal votes are ones that are incomplete, not filled in at all, identify the voter, or ambiguous).
The colours used in the visualisation are the Party colours, where known.
Usage
Click the "Next" button at the bottom right of the chart to move on to the next part of the process - either the next count, or distribution of preferences.
There's an information area below the chart with explanations.
Select "Show voters" for a case study of 3 'typical' voters who for various reasons do not vote for the major parties. Below the chart you'll see their completed ballot papers (if "Show voters" is selected) and the visualisation follows how their preferences flow.
(See also the first preferences map for this electorate at How Moncrieff voted.)
Choose election:
Voters
Following are the ballot papers of imaginary but "typical" voters who are disaffected by the two-party system and are looking for a new way of doing politics.
's ballot paper
House of Representatives
Ballot Paper
Queensland
Electoral Division of Moncrieff
Number the boxes from 1 to in the order of your choice.
Observations and info
In the elections shown, there would be no difference if "first past the post" voting was in play, unless most voters wrote "2" next to the second contender (ALP in each case). However, this would be very unlikely.
Preferential voting only becomes significant if there are two candidates with very similar first preference votes (e.g. both close to 40%).