[EM] [Election-Methods] [english 94%] PRfavoringracialminorities

[James Gilmour]

> > On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 12:18 AM, James Gilmour wrote:
> > Here are some more data on exhausted ballot in real STV-PR elections: 
> > TASMANIAN HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY POLLS 1913-2006: INCIDENCE OF EXHAUSTED VOTES
> >      http://home.vicnet.net.au/~prsa/history/tas_exha.htm

> Raph Frank > Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 12:59 AM
> Wow, none of those have a exhausted ballot
> level of more than 8% and in most cases, they
> are below 5%.
> 
> I don't think that merited them bring in compulsory voting.
> It was probably 'really' for a different reason.

Those results are from Tasmania where they use a different version of STV-PR from that used in the Federal Senate elections and they
have quite a lot of different election rules about ballot papers and voting.  I suspect the political priorities of the electors are
also different in their State STV-PR elections.

I haven't time to do any more searching just now (did quite a lot last night), but maybe one of our Australian members could provide
the info about the reason for the change to compulsory marking of preferences against all candidates in the 1934 reform.  My
recollection is that compulsory voting was introduced in 1924 after the country was taken to war (World War I) by a Parliament that
had been voted in by only a small proportion of the electorate.  My recollection is that there was something similar behind the 1934
reform, perhaps the last-place winners being elected well short of the quota, rather than simple bullet voting.

James

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