You must number every box on the small lower house ballot paper in order of your preference. After all the votes have been counted and tallied, the candidate with the fewest first preference votes is eliminated and their votes go to their next preference. This goes on until only two candidates are left and one has more votes than the other.
This final two-candidate count is commonly called the Two Party Preferred vote, although the final two are not always Labor and the Coalition.
So here’s the kicker, the preferences of the two highest candidates never get distributed.
Preferences are crucial if your candidate could come third or lower. In most cases, votes for minor party candidates or independents will find their way to a major party pile. But that is only most cases: some dark horses can win by nudging ahead of a swag of others.
Most independents issue an open ticket, leaving the preference choice open.
Locally, Blue (Liberal), Red (Labor) or Green could be in the final two.
Make your vote count by numbering every square. Express your preference.
Albert Park
After voting for Nina Taylor, the ALP HTV recommends 2 Independent Dragwidge, 3 Greens Semmens, 4 Socialist Bolger, 5 Liberal Cook, 6 Independent King and 7 One Nation Lindrum.
After voting for Andrew Cook, the Liberal HTV recommends 2 Independent King, 3 Independent Dragwidge, 4 One Nation Lindrum, 5 Labor Taylor, 6 Greens Semmens and 7 Socialists Bolger.
After voting for Sonya Semmens, the Greens HTV recommends 2 Independent Dragwidge, 3 Socialists Bolger, 4 Labor Taylor, 5 Liberal Cook, 6 Independent King and 7 One Nation Lindrum.
After voting for Tam Lindrum, the One Nation HTV recommends 2 Liberal Cook, 3 Labor Taylor, 4 Independent Dragwidge, 5 Independent King, 6 Greens Semmens and 7 Socialist Bolger.
Brighton
After voting for James Newbury, the Liberal HTV recommends 2 Family First Vincent, 3 One Nation Fagan, 4 Libertarian Hain, 5 Labor Mullahy, 6 Greens Bain, 7 Socialist Smith and 8 Independent Casley.
After voting for Bridget Mullahy, the ALP HTV recommends 2 Greens Bain, 3 Socialist Smith, 4 Libertarian Hain, 5 Liberal Newbury, 6 Family First Vincent, 7 Independent Casley and 8 One Nation Fagan.
After voting for Ebony Bain, the Greens HTV recommends 2 Socialist Smith, 3 Labor Mullahy, 4 Liberal Newbury, 5 Libertarian Hain, 6 Independent Casley, 7 Family First Vincent and 8 One Nation Fagan.
After voting for Alexander Fagan, the One Nation HTV recommends 2 Family First Vincent, 3 Libertarian Hain, 4 Liberal Newbury, 5 Labor Mullahy, 6 Independent Casley, 7 Greens Bain and 8 Socialist Smith.
Caulfield
After voting for David Southwick, the Liberal HTV recommends 2 Family First Gilbert, 3 Independent Shroot, 4 One Nation Abelman, 5 Labor Stafrace, 6 Greens Dolejší, and 7 Socialists Ababneh.
After voting for Mikaela Stafrace, Labor is running an open ticket meaning no preferences are recommended.
After voting for Angel Dolejší, the Greens HTV recommends 2 Socialists Ababneh, 3 Labor Stafrace, 4 Independent Shroot, 5 Liberal Southwick, 6 Family First Gilbert and 7 One Nation Abelman.
After voting for Michael Abelman, the One Nation HTV recommends 2 Family First Gilbert, 3 Liberal Southwick, 4 Independent Shroot, 5 Labor Stafrace, 6 Greens Dolejší, and 7 Socialists Ababneh.
Prahran
After voting for Rachel Westaway, the Liberal HTV recommends 2 Independent Menadue, 3 Independent Leeton Watts, 4 Independent Finnigan, 5 One Nation Virsu, 6 AJP O’Neill, 7 Labor Hopper, 8 Wong, 9 Jones, 10 Dicks, 11 Jonas, 12 Greens Di Camillo, 13 Socialist Doueihi.
After voting for Angelica Di Camillo, the Greens HTV recommends 2 Socialist Doueihi, 3 AJP O’Neill, 4 Independent Leeton Watts, 5 Dicks, 6 Menadue, 7 Labor Hopper, 8 Finnigan, 9 Liberal Westaway, 10 Wong, 11 Jones, 12 Jonas, 13 One Nation Virsu.
After voting for Meghan Hopper, Labor is running an open ticket meaning no preferences are recommended.
After voting for Shaun Virsu, the One Nation HTV recommends 2 Safety Victoria Morgan, 3 Liberal Westaway, 4 Labor Hopper, 5 – 10 Independents, 11 Greens Di Camillo, 12 AJP O’Neill and finally 13 Socialists Doueihi.
