Elections under Alternative Vote are usually held in single-member
districts, like FPTP elections. However, AV gives voters considerably more
options than FPTP when marking their ballot paper. Rather than simply
indicating their favoured candidate, under AV electors rank the candidates in
the order of their choice, by marking a ‘1’ for their favourite, ‘2’ for their
second choice, ‘3’ for their third choice and so on. The system thus enables
voters to express their preferences between candidates rather than simply their
first choice. For this reason, it is often known as ‘preferential voting’ in
the countries which use it. (The Borda
Count, STV, and the Supplementary Vote are also preferential systems).
AV also differs from FPTP in the way votes are counted. Like FPTP or
TRS, a candidate who has won an absolute majority of the votes (50 per cent
plus one) is immediately elected. However, if no candidate has an absolute
majority, under AV the candidate with the lowest number of first preferences is
‘eliminated’ from the count, and his or her ballots are examined for their
second preferences. Each ballot is then transferred to whichever remaining
candidate has the highest preference in the order as marked on the ballot
paper. This process is repeated until one candidate has an absolute majority,
and is declared duly elected. AV is thus a majoritarian system.
It is possible, but not essential, in preferential systems such as AV to
require voters to number all, or most, of the candidates on the ballot paper.
This avoids the possibility of votes becoming ‘wasted’ at a later stage in the
count because they bear no further valid preferences. However, it can lead to
an increase in the number of invalid votes, and it can sometimes give
substantial importance to preferences between candidates to which the voter is
indifferent or actively dislikes.
Australian AV ballot paper
