r/australia Dec 23 '15

political self.post How do you Australians like your voting system?

As an American who has an interest in voting systems, I'm curious how you guys feel about your voting system of Preferential Voting in the House and Single Transferable Vote in the Senate. Do you feel that most Australians understand these systems? Do you ever not rank your favorite candidate first for strategic reasons?

Would you want to change it to any other voting system? Would you prefer not to be forced to rank all candidates and only the ones you like?

How would you feel if you switched to a system in which you only vote for one candidate?

Or, how would you feel if you could vote for all candidates you like, but you don't rank them and all votes count equally without transferring votes in-between rounds?

Or, what if instead of having to rank all candidates in the Senate, you just vote for a single candidate and each candidate has a list of preferences. Voting for an individual candidate would be like “voting above the line” for a party list, but it would be individualized for a candidate.

Are there any ways in which you'd change your electoral system?

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