By Allon Lee
THE voting system in the 26 November Brimbank Council elections will change from preferential to proportional voting.
The proportional representation system is used to count votes in elections where there are multimember wards.
In February, the Victorian Electoral Commission reduced the number of wards in Brimbank from nine to four, meaning that more than one councillor will now represent each ward.
Brimbank’s four wards have been divided into Grasslands (three councillors), Harvester (three councillors), Horseshoe Bend (two councillors) and Taylors (three councillors).
Proportional voting does not affect how voters complete their ballot papers.
Voters must still place a “1” in the box against their most preferred candidate on the ballot paper, and then number the remaining boxes in the order of their preference.
For prospective candidates to win, they must achieve a specific proportion (or quota) of votes.
The quota is worked out by dividing the total number of formal ballot papers by one more than the number of positions to be filled and by adding one to the result.
So, if there are 10,000 formal ballot papers in an election to fill three vacancies, candidates divide 10,000 votes by four and add one, which equals 2,501 votes to be elected.
If a successful candidate receives more votes than the minimum needed to win, the surplus votes are transferred to the remaining candidates according to the preferences received.
Because it is not possible to identify which votes elected the candidate and which are surplus, all the candidate’s votes are transferred, less one vote.
The value of the transferred votes is worked out by dividing the surplus by the total number of ballot papers for the candidate.
Each ballot paper transferred to another candidate has this value.
Any candidate who has gained the quota once the surplus votes have been transferred is elected.
If there are still vacancies to fill once the surplus votes have been distributed, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is excluded.
Excluded candidates’ ballot papers are then transferred to the remaining candidates at the value they were received according to the preferences on them.
The transferring of surpluses from elected candidates and distributing preferences from excluded candidates continues until all councillor positions are filled.
For more information visit the Victorian Electoral Commission website at www.vec.vic.gov.au/prslideshow.html.
