Victoria's Proportional Voting System Not Accurate

Victoria's Municipal Election Voting System is not proportional. At best it is only "semi proportional".

Distortions in the way the vote is counted,  methods introduced as a means of assisting a manual counting process, seriously impact on the accuracy and results of the elections.

With the use of computer technology there is no justification or merit ion maintaining the current system.

The method of calculating the Surplus Transfer (Surplus divided by number of ballot papers) increases the value of ticket votes at the expense of individual votes. the Surplus transfer value should be based on teh value of the vote not the number of ballot papers.  Some ballott papers have a lesser value then others yet under the current rules they are disproportionally transferred at the same value

To add to the flaws in the system  ballot papers are segmented, grouped together by their transfer value and transferred in seperate transactions skipping candidates already elected and only to be allocated and counted at a higher value than if they have been transferred in a single transaction and allocated to the next candidate according to the voters nominated preference.

The principle that should apply is that a vote for an excluded candidate should be transferred as if the excluded candidate had not stood.  This is best achieved by resetting and restarting the count from scratch on every exclusion.

The Quota for election also distorts the proportionality of the vote in that the method of calculating the quota is determined by dividing the total number of votes by (the number of vacancies plus one)  (x/(y+1).  In a true proportional count it should be  just x/y.

These distortions were introduced into the system to facilitate a manual counting process.,  They are not accurate and do not reflect the voters intentions.

A plea for pure democracy and an accurate voting system

With a computerised counting system there is no justification or reason to maintain the current flawed counting procedures.  The system can and should be accurate.

• The quota should be x/y. 
• The method of calculating the surplus transfer value should be based on the value of the vote not the number of ballot papers 
• There should be one transaction per candidate without segmentation.  

 If the number of vacancies has not been filled in a single iteration count then the candidates with the lowest votes should be excluded and the ballot reset and votes  redistributed according to voters nominated order of preference as if the excluded candidate has not stood.  One transaction per candidate redistributing all votes at the same time.


More information The Wright System