[EM] Voting by party in australian senate elections

[Peter Maxwell]

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 11:34 pm, Clinton Mead wrote:
> Australia, in the upper house, 12 seats per state, 6 re-elected each
> election using optional party list STV (electors can choose whether to
> tick the party box or number preferences themselves, about 99% tick the
> party list box). 

It's not quite that bad, 95% overall and only 80% in the state (Tasmania) and 
territory (ACT) that also use STV in their own elections.  Source: 
http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/how/newsfiles/news104.htm.

I only mention this because the high proportion of voters who use the party 
list box has been used as an argument against ranked ballots, and as a fan of 
ranked ballots I don't like to see that case overstated!

 -- Peter Maxwell