Tasmanian voters urged to ensure their vote counts in this week’s election

ABC NEWS (Australia)

During the last Tasmanian state election just 16 months ago, there was a considerable increase in the number of votes that were deemed to be informal, meaning they weren't counted towards the final result.

Transcript

00:00Did you know Tasmania leads the country in casting votes that won't count?

00:07At the 2024 state election, more than 23,000 people cast informal votes,

00:13meaning they didn't comply with the rules and weren't counted towards the election result.

00:18It accounted for 6.31% of all votes.

00:22We did see an increase from five and a bit percent to just over six percent,

00:27which was a little bit disappointing, but we'll do more things this time to try and make it easy for people to get it right.

00:32When the Tasmanian Electoral Commission analysed the informal ballot papers,

00:37it determined that while some were deliberate, most of them appeared to have unintentional mistakes.

00:436,500 voters appeared to make errors in their numbering,

00:47like missing a number between one and seven or repeating numbers.

00:51At last year's election, Tasmania's House of Assembly increased from 25 members to 35.

00:57In our multi-member Hare Clark electoral system,

01:00that meant we moved from electing five members in each electorate to electing seven members in each.

01:06It changed how voters needed to fill out their ballot papers,

01:10from numbering a minimum of five boxes to needing to number seven.

01:15That appears to have led to an increase in the informal vote.

01:19There were columns with less than seven candidates.

01:22There was a higher number of people that voted in those columns that did not go into seven.

01:27So in our example, even if you're a devoted fan of Team Marsupial,

01:31because that party only has five candidates,

01:34you'll need to number at least two boxes from other columns.

01:38Your vote also needs to be anonymous.

01:40Some didn't count because people wrote names on them.

01:43Remember, you have to write numbers from at least one to seven.

01:47Last year, four and a half thousand ballots didn't count,

01:50because voters put ticks and crosses instead of numbers.

01:54There was one postal ballot paper that came in,

01:56which had a beautiful landscape scene all around the ballot paper.

02:01While adding your own artistic flair isn't encouraged,

02:04as long as you number at least one to seven, your vote will still count.

02:08And finally, when you've finished filling out your ballot paper,

02:11remember to fold it, because your vote should be kept secret.

02:15Correct.

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