The voting system in Australia can trace its democratic beginnings to 1856 when the secret ballot was first used. But it was not until 1908 that every adult was eligible to vote. Elections are organized and overseen by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). Australia is one of a few countries in the world where voting is compulsory for all adults aged above 21 years.
Compulsory voting mainly applies to national, state and territory positions. However, some states have also made voting at municipal levels compulsory. Any person that has attained the voting age but abstains from voting will first receive a written request from the AEC to provide reason for not voting or pay a $20 fine within 21 days. If one does not respond within the 21 days, then court proceedings may be initiated and will culminate in a $50 fine plus legal costs.
That said, with a voter turnout of about 95% during elections prosecutions are rare. In addition, voters that for one reason or another do not want to vote are increasingly reverting to a blank or incomplete vote. That way, they technically fulfill the requirements of the law even if they do not actually vote for any candidate.
The Australian electoral system has seen a number of changes over the years. It first started with the relatively straightforward simple majority voting system (referred to as First Past The Post) that is used by most democracies around the world. This later gave way to the Preferential voting system that was adopted by the country’s parliament in 1919.
Preferential voting is unique to Australia. The rationale is that the winner of a seat must have 50%+1 of the vote. Whereas, this requirement is not of itself unique to Australia, how the 50%+1 is arrived at is what’s unique. In Preferential voting, each voter indicates their order of preference for a set of candidates vying for a given seat in the federal House of Representatives or in the Lower House of state legislatures.
A third voting system, Proportional voting, was introduced for Senate polls beginning in 1949. This type of vote is meant to capture the dynamics of representation when electing one person for multiple electoral areas as is the case for senate positions. There are two forms of Proportional voting systems in Australia – the Senate model and the Hare-Clark model. The Senate is used for the selection of members of the upper house at state and national level. The Hare-Clark model is only used by the ACT and Tasmania.
In Australia, a power of attorney does not give you the right to vote for someone else. If a voter has a disability or any other issue that may make it difficult for them to vote, every polling station has trained staff that provide impartial assistance to such voters. That is good news for persons applying for immigration and citizenship but do not yet have a good grasp of English.
References:
http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/electoral_system.html
http://www.aec.gov.au/faqs/voting_australia.htm
http://australianpolitics.com/elections/features/
