Two ballot papers, a stack of preferences and why Parliament is a bit like assembling IKEA furniture
If you walk into a polling booth wondering how voting works and reckon you may as well draw a dick and balls and call it a day, you’re not alone.
Plenty of people stare at those papers and think, “How does this shit even work?”
A recent conversation with my 20 year old son confirmed this.
So here’s a quick explainer!
Wait… What Election Are We Even Voting In?
Australia runs three levels of government.
Local government
State government
Federal government
Local government deals with rubbish, roads and parks. State government runs hospitals, schools, police and transport. Federal government handles the big national stuff like tax, defence and Centrelink.
This election is the state election, so we are voting for the people who run South Australia.
What Happens In The Voting Booth
When you walk into the polling booth you will receive two ballot papers.
One is for the lower house, which elects your local area MP.
The other is for the upper house, which represents the whole state.
The lower house paper is the simpler one.
You will see a list of candidates for your electorate. You might have seen their mugs on signs around your town. To vote, you number every box in order of preference.
1 is your favourite candidate.
2 is your next choice.
3 is your next.
And so on until they’re all numbered, with the one who really grinds your gears sitting firmly at the bottom.
Australia uses what is called preferential voting. If your first choice doesn’t get enough votes, your vote moves to your second choice, then your third, until someone ends up with more than half the vote.
Unfold The Giant Ballot Paper
The second paper is the one that you end up wrestling with in the tiny cardboard voting stand. It can cause mass confusion and the inevitable comment of “geez, how many trees were cut down to make these damn things?”
This ballot elects members of the upper house, officially known as the Legislative Council of South Australia, who represent the whole state.
You will see a thick line across the paper.
Above the line is the simple option. You place a 1 in the box for the party you want to support, and you’re done and dusted.
Below the line is the trickier option, where you number candidates individually in the order you prefer. You are asked to number at least 12 boxes.
How Parliament Actually Works
I know, most people reckon Parliament, or the people inside the walls, don’t do a whole lot of “work” at all. But stick with me.
The two houses, the upper and lower house have different jobs. Think of it a bit like building a flat-pack chair from IKEA.
One group opens the box, tips all the pieces onto the floor and starts putting it together.
The other group stands there holding the instructions saying, “Are you sure that bolt goes there?”
The lower house is where government is formed. The party that wins the most seats here forms government and their leader becomes Premier.
The upper house acts more like the instructions crew. It doesn’t form government. Its main job is to review laws passed by the lower house and decide whether they should be approved, changed or sent back for another look.
Think of the lower house as the group putting the IKEA chair together, and the upper house as the ones checking the instructions before someone plonks themselves down and the whole thing falls to bits.
And because the upper house is elected differently, the government doesn’t always control it. Sometimes the IKEA instructions crew can send the law back if they think something’s not quite right.
Hold On… My MP Won But Their Party Didn’t?
One thing worth knowing is your local MP can win their seat even if their party doesn’t end up running the state.
For example, Penny Pratt holds the seat of Frome for the Liberal Party of Australia.
But when the Australian Labor Party won more seats across South Australia, they formed government.
So Pratt still represents Frome in Parliament, even though her party isn’t the one running the state. She just sits on the other side of the chamber. It’s a bit like school where the sporty kids are down one end of the oval kicking the footy, while the word nerds are hanging out in the library. Same place, different teams.
And yes, there’s a whole other layer to Parliament involving shadow ministers, crossbenchers and minor parties… but that rabbit hole can wait for another day.
Now go forth and vote… preferably without drawing a dirty picture on the ballot paper.
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