On Saturday we go to vote. We as a country will pick a new lower and upper house, elect a new Prime Minister, have a democracy sausage, and critique our next government through highbrow masterfully designed wit by insulting the way they consume a vegetable (Google Tony Abbott onion).
‘But Glass, why is May 3rd the day? How do I vote so I can put [insert Candidate’s Name] last? Why does our government live in apartment blocks and what the heck is a democracy sausage? I promise we will get to all the odd functions of our democracy soon enough, but first, let’s start simple.
What are we voting for?
Australia’s democracy follows the Westminster system (we copied England and then changed some wording) which includes a Bicameral parliament that forms our executive branch and has a separate head of government and state. A Bicameral parliament means there are two houses in the parliament: the lower house (the House of the Representatives) and the upper house (the Senate). Our votes will decide who gets to sit in those houses.
How does voting work?
Australia has what is called preferential voting. Some systems will allow you to cast a single vote for your preferred candidate and elect who get the most votes. In Australia we get to rank our candidates from most to least preferred. If no candidate acquires an absolute majority after the first round of votes, the candidate with the least number of votes is removed from the race and their votes flow to voter’s 2nd preferences. This process will continue until a candidate achieves an absolute majority.
If I don’t put 1 for a major party, won’t I be wasting my vote?
Thats the beautiful feature about preferential voting, you can preference the candidate you most agree with first even if they are unlikely to get in. Your preferences will flow to your preferred major party. The major parties will see where the preferences are flowing from and may make changes to their policies to rise in your ranking in later election. ABC have written a wonderful article on the shift away from the major parties.
Who can vote?
Australian citizens 18 or above must vote by law otherwise they will be fined. As of the 2025 federal election, 98.2% of eligible voters have registered to vote, or 18,098,797 people.
How do you vote?
The traditional expectation is that you will vote on May 3rd at one of the voting bookings in your electorate, walking past the rainbow of political parties offering how to vote cards and trying to sway your vote. One inside you will be given two ballot papers and vote in a lovely cardboard booth before placing your paper in the electorate box and exiting the building. You will leave with a democracy sausage in hand – a sausage on bread – the symbolic reward for your suffrage. If your anything like me, who is busy on Saturday for a perfectly valid reason, early voting is also an option. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) website will have a plethora of early voting centre available for each electorate that you can choose from. Polling booth officials may ask if you have a reason, you are unable to vote on Saturday, and you only need say yes or no. Word of warning, early voting has become quite popular with 36% of votes cast in 2022 happening before the date. Candidates have picked up on this. Be prepared for the rainbow walk regardless of the day.
How do I actually vote though?
As mentioned, you will receive two ballots from the polling person after you have identified yourself and they have ticked you off the list. The small one is the House of Representatives ballot, and the big one will be for the Senate. The polling booth staff will explain the ballot itself and how to fill it out.
The House of Representatives ballot requires you to number the candidates 1 to however many there are in order, 1 being your preferred candidate ascending to least favourite.
The Senate can be completed two ways:
- When voting above the line you will number your preferred political parties from 1 to a minimum of 6. You can go more but you need to do at least 6.
- When voting below the line you will number from 1 to a minimum of 12 of your preferred senators. Again, you can go more but there are 56 candidates on the Queensland senate ballot, so be warned.
Above the line your preferences flow within the party until their last candidate is eliminated. Below the line the votes will flow as you numbered them. Most vote above the line but the people who vote below do it for 2 reasons, to put a candidate first or to put a candidate 56th. I have the utmost respect for someone who preferences 56 candidates
What if I vote multiple times?
In a word, don’t. If you are feeling particularly rebellious and want to defy this guide for daring to confine you, be warned that the penalty for multiple votes is a fine of up to $19,800 and 12-months’ imprisonment. I cannot stress this enough, don’t.
What about donkey voting?
Traditionally Donkey Voting is numbering the candidates top down on the ballot. Commonly done as a form of voting apathy and fulfilling one’s mandatory voting obligation. This term has now become somewhat synonymous with Informal voting: where one will fill out the ballot incorrectly and therefore the vote will not be counted. Identifying yourself, using marks such as tick and cross instead of numbers, not numbering the whole ballot, or just leaving it blank will result in the ballot being discarded.
Who do I vote for?
As a citizen of Australia, you are being asked to participate in how this country is run and it is outside of this guide’s scope to influence your vote. Understandably there are an overwhelming number of candidates from political parties you may not ever know existed. You will hear other tell you to do your research and find the policies that you most align with but that can be hard tracking that information down.
For an overview, ABC Vote Compass will ask you a questionnaire on how you align with the Labor, LNP, Greens, and One Nation party.
The website Build a Ballot will give you a similar questionnaire and then tell you a percentage out of 100% which candidates from the lower and upper house best align with your answers. It will allow you to number a mock ballot for you to practise your preferences. They don’t have the data on every candidate so may you need to look up some on your own.
What happens after we vote?
Voting booths will close at 6pm on Saturday and the AEC begins counting ballots. They will begin reporting across the country, rounds of preferences for each electorate until a candidate reaches the absolute majority. Media outlets will be reporting as these results are released and will make predictions on who will be winning those seats. ABC is my go-to election coverage though Glass will also be providing updates through our Instagram. Candidates will be with followers at venues around Australia, some stopping for the first time since the election began, watching the vote roll in. Some will make victory speeches and more will make concession speeches.
What happens after that?
We may not know who wins by the end of night. Final tallies may take days to fully count and recount. A single party may not be able to form government outright and so negotiations between parties will occur. This is not an error of the system but a function. Democracies are built through cooperation, and the parliament will form a government that will elect a prime minister. Glass will be doing a post-election summary next week to help clear the air.
If you have questions, please reach out to the AEC on 132326 or email them at info@aec.gov.au
