Formality again

It was pointed out to me that it is probably not a good idea to have so prominent a message indicating whether your vote is formal or not based on how many candidates you have currently preferenced. This could only encourage people not to fill in all of the boxes below the line, and thus increase the risk of someone voting informally. So I have reversed the change I mentioned here and instead show the warning message if there are any candidates left unpreferenced.

As mentioned in the previous post, the tool on this site does not allow misnumbering — it is not possible to duplicate or skip numbers. This simplifies the saving provisions that can be applied when your vote is counted to just be based on how many candidates were not numbered. For this year’s election, if you are voting with the help of this tool, you can technically preference only the number of candidates according to the following table and leave the rest unpreferenced:

Division Preferences required
ACT 8 of 9
New South Wales 76 of 84
Northern Territory 14 of 15
Queensland 54 of 60
South Australia 38 of 42
Tasmania 22 of 24
Victoria 54 of 60
Western Australia 50 of 55

Don’t rely on this, however! Number every box below the line (if you are going to vote below the line!) if you want to ensure that your vote counts.


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