How Australian federal elections work

2021-12-25

I am ashamed to admit that I have only just recently put the effort in to learn this. I have known “how to vote” since I was eligible to vote, but have never fully understood:

There is a lot of information on the internet about this. Too much. This post answers the above questions, in my preferred format of pictures and dot points. Please note that I got super bored reading the many walls of text about this, so there may be mistakes/inaccuracies in this post.

I’ll explain some context first, so if you’re impatient:

Some context: What is the federal government?

The 2 houses exist to keep each other ‘in check’. For example, before one house decides to wage war with China, the other house has a chance to step in and say “that’s probably not a good idea”. The representatives of each house are chosen in different ways, to ensure diversity of opinion.

For more details:

How to vote for senators (the big ballot paper)

Casting your vote

The senate ballot paper. Voting above the line is equivalent to numbering all boxes below the line (don't vote above and below the line! Pick one!) source: APH

How your vote gets candidates elected

The short video below explains it better than I can. Here’s my attempt, anyway:

A short video describing the above points, but better

Notes

Sources

How to vote for lower house representatives

Thankfully, this is simpler than the senate.

Casting your vote

An example house of reps ballot paper. Source: AEC

How your vote gets a candidate elected

Another good short video, describing counting of votes for the house of representatives

Image sources

I copied images from these sources: