How Preferential Voting Actually Works - and Why Your Vote Is Never Wasted

BYV: The system was designed to give you genuine freedom of choice. Most Australians don't know that. Some parties are counting on it staying that way.

Here is something worth knowing before Nepean on 2 May and Farrer on 9 May - and any election - federal, state, local.

If you vote 1 for a community independent - or for any candidate who is not one of the two frontrunners - your vote is not wasted. Not even close. The Australian voting system was specifically designed to make sure that does not happen. Most Australians do not know this. Many major parties are counting on that.

I am not a political scientist or an electoral analyst. I am an Australian citizen who has spent years working in civic engagement and campaigns, and I have had to learn this system from the ground up - because civics education in Australia is nowhere near as good as it should be. This article is written for everyday Australians in exactly that spirit. It explains how voting works for the House of Representatives, most state lower houses, and many local council elections. The Senate uses a different system - proportional representation - which we will cover separately. For Nepean and Farrer, this is your guide.

First, what happens elsewhere

In the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, elections use first-past-the-post. The candidate with the most votes wins - even if that is only 30 or 35 per cent. Everyone else’s votes count for nothing. No majority required. Just more than anyone else.

This is why voters in those systems are constantly told to vote tactically - meaning, vote for the lesser of two evils rather than the candidate you actually support. It is a system that structurally rewards the two major parties and punishes everyone else. And it produces exactly the two-party duopoly many Australians are frustrated with - but mistakenly believe they also have.

They don’t.

The 2024 UK general election made this painfully visible. The Greens received nearly two million votes - 6.7 per cent of the national vote - and won four seats. One seat for every 485,000 votes. Political scientists called it the most disproportionate election in British history.

In February 2026, the UK Greens won their first ever Westminster by-election - Gorton and Denton - with more than 40 per cent of the vote. Their slogan: “make hope normal again.” Their strategy: deep local organising in communities where people genuinely knew and trusted them. Importantly, they won despite their voting system, not because of it. Imagine what that same energy could do with a system that actually helps rather than hinders.

That system is ours.

How preferential voting actually works

Australia uses preferential voting for the House of Representatives, most state lower houses including the Victorian Legislative Assembly where Nepean sits, and many local council elections across the country - though rules vary by state and council, so always check the ballot paper instructions.

How it works: You number every candidate in order of preference. 1 is your first choice. 2 is your second. And so on.

When votes are counted, if no candidate has more than 50 per cent of first preference votes - almost always the case in a competitive contest - the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Everyone who voted 1 for that candidate has their vote transferred to whoever they marked as 2. If that second choice was already eliminated, the vote keeps moving - to your third choice, then your fourth - until it reaches a candidate still in the race.

Your vote never stops. It never disappears. It keeps working until it helps elect someone. This is why numbering every box matters - the more preferences you mark, the further your vote can travel.

A vote for Tracee Hutchison in Nepean does not help the Liberals if Hutchison is eliminated. It flows to whoever you marked as 2. You decide where it goes - not the party, not anyone else.

The how-to-vote card - what it is, who wrote it, and why you don’t have to follow it

When you walk into a polling booth, volunteers hand you a how-to-vote card showing the order a party recommends you number your ballot. Most people assume it is an official document. It is not. It is produced by the party or candidate and reflects preference deals negotiated between parties - often in backrooms, sometimes for reasons that have nothing to do with your interests.

You do not have to follow it. It is a suggestion, not an instruction.

At federal elections and in Victoria - including Nepean - you must number every box. Leaving any blank makes your vote informal.

NSW state elections use optional preferential voting. You only need to mark a 1. However, if your candidate is knocked out and you only voted 1, your vote exhausts and stops counting. Numbering your preferences fully gives your vote the best chance of counting all the way. NSW local council rules vary by council - always read the ballot paper instructions carefully.

Tasmania uses a different system entirely - Hare-Clark, a form of proportional representation where multiple members are elected per electorate and candidates need roughly 12 to 17 per cent of the vote depending on the electorate size, rather than a majority. It is significantly more representative than single-member preferential voting. How-to-vote cards are banned by law within 100 metres of Tasmanian polling places. Tasmanian voters decide entirely for themselves. Which is, when you think about it, how it should work everywhere.

Community independent candidates approach how-to-vote cards differently from the major parties. Some hand out a card showing only “Vote 1” - with no numbers directing further preferences. This is deliberate. Unlike the major parties whose preference deals are negotiated behind closed doors, community independents want you to decide where your preferences flow. That hands the responsibility to you - which means numbering your ballot carefully, in an order that reflects your values. You decide. Not them.

What this means in Nepean and Farrer

In both contests, the preferential system means you can vote for the candidate who best represents your values, interests, and requirements - and know that if they do not make the final two, your vote flows to your next preferred candidate still standing, rather than disappearing.

Both community independent candidates - Tracee Hutchison in Nepean and Michelle Milthorpe in Farrer - have polled strongly enough to be genuine contenders. Neither is a wasted vote. The preferential system makes that possible.

The argument that voting for an independent is throwing your vote away is not just wrong. In Australia’s system, it is the reverse of the truth. Voting for a candidate you don’t believe in - because you are afraid of wasting your vote - is the only way to guarantee your values, interests and requirements go unrepresented.

Preferential voting is one of Australia’s most significant democratic achievements. It was designed to give ordinary Australians genuine freedom of choice without strategic penalty - the freedom to vote for who you actually want, not just who you think can win.

Most Australians who have ever voted for their second choice out of fear never needed to.

You are free to vote for who you actually want.

Your Vote. Your Future.

You know what to do.

Onward we press

Sue Barrett is the founder of Democracy Watch AU and Before You Vote. Before You Vote publishes every Tuesday and Friday. If this was useful, send it to five people.