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Notes to poem: In Australia, voting is compulsory. A voter who is absent from his home electorate must still cast a vote wherever he is. This is done by making an absent vote or a postal vote. Voting hours are 8am to 5pm. The expression "some will lose their sinker" refers to a fee a candidate must make. It is refunded if a moderate percentage of votes is attained otherwise it is forfeit. (To lose one's sinker whilst fishing is a disaster!) A voting procedure called Hare-Clark is used. The process sometimes takes several days and often produces surprise results.
Superficially, Hare-Clark is a complicated method but it is very fair. No vote is wasted as happens with other systems. A voter who votes for a candidate who has little chance of being elected does not simply have an ineffectual or wasted vote. In effect, he is given a fresh vote or votes minus his earlier preferred selections. This is brought about by requiring a voter to vote for every candidate on the voting paper by writing the numbers 1, 2, 3, et seq, in the boxes alongside the candidates' names. Preferential voting is used which means the voter enters the numbers in the order of his/her preference. It can be thought of as a race in which a voter sets down the complete order he would wish the race to finish. To be elected, a candidate must secure sufficient votes, called a quota. A quota is calculated using this formula: Quota = valid votes divided by (the number of vacancies + 1) + 1. For example, assume there are 50000 valid votes and four to be elected, then 50000/(4 + 1) + 1 equals a quota of 10001. When all of the No.1 votes have been counted, one or more candidates may have attained a quota. It is possible, however, that not even one may have attained a quota.
Assume there is a candidate with more than a quota, then he is elected. The number of votes he has in excess of a quota are then given to each of his second preferences in proportion to their number, procedure (a). This may cause another candidate to be elected, in which case procedure (a) will then be applied to his excess.
If there are still vacancies after completing procedure (a) a different procedure (b) is applied. With (b), the candidate who now has the least number of votes is eliminated and his votes are given to the No.2 preferences on his voting papers. This will mean that procedure (a) will need to be reapplied to distribute the 'new' excess votes of the elected candidates. Procedures (a) and (b) continue until all vacancies are filled.
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