介绍选举 – 因何耗时如此之久?

澳洲的联邦大选耗费许久的时间才决定谁当选执政，许多人一定纳闷，究竟为何澳洲的选举会耗时如此之久呢？　

在澳大利亚，由于我们众议院的採用 “拨票制度” 的投票方式，这意味着在绿色的投票单上并不只事填写想投的候选人，而是需要把对所有候选人的顺序用数字填好。

如此的投票方式可造成一个更公平的投票结果，因为当选的人必然是多数选民最能接受也最同意的候选人。 然则拨票制度会需要对每张选票进行更严格且多次的审查，这类计票时间也远比只投给一个候选人来的更冗长。

如没有任何候选人在拨票制中的第一选项取得过半选票，则第一选项得票最低的候选人会陆续被淘汰，淘汰的候选人票会依据投票人的选择转到其选择的第二选项候选人。以此类推，此消彼长，直到一名候选人在反复拨票的过程中取得过半选票为止。

对于参议院而言，计票方式就更为複杂，投票系统採用 “比例代表制”。 这样做的方式目的在于从政党得票比例中选出可当选的候选人数，这使得候选人只要小比例的政党票数就可当选。 这正是参议院选举中有许多小党派竞逐的主因，也造成参议院的白色选票是既大且长。

参议院的投票方式更有两种选择，选民可以选投分界线以上的政党票，又或根据分界线以下个别候选人顺序投票。

所有的票都会谨慎的根据每张填写 “1” 的选票统计分类，只有当这一步骤完成后，才有可能跟据每个政党得票比例进行更複杂的当选人计算。

在未来电子票将可大幅加快这冗长的计票过程，但传统投票方式转型到电子计票将需谨慎确保投票和计票过程没有诈欺或不实行为。 如果未来要允许在家投票，更要先有能力确保投票行为并非在被胁迫或他人冒用名义的情况下发生。

总而言之，投票与计票方式转型需在确保公正公平无欺之虞，亦有效保护投票人的隐私与保密性。维州议会已正在研究如何转型进入电子投票世代，预计明年四月将有更进一步的报告释出。

 

英文版/ English version

Elections – why do results take so long?

 

It has taken a long time to find out who has been elected after the recent Federal election. Why does it take so long?

 

In Australia, we have a system of “preferential voting” for the House of Representatives. That means that voters must show their preferences on the green ballot paper by putting a number in the box next to the name of each candidate, not just marking the one candidate they want.

 

This gives a fairer outcome, because it means the candidate who is elected is the candidate who a majority of voters would rather have than any one of the other candidates.

 

However, preferential voting also requires more checking of each ballot paper to ensure the voter has filled it out correctly. It also takes much longer to count the votes than if voters just marked one candidate.

 

If no candidate receives more than half of all the “1” votes, the candidate who received the lowest number of “1” votes is eliminated, and the votes for that candidate are distributed to the other candidates in accordance with the “2” votes marked on each ballot paper. This elimination of candidates continues until one candidate has more than half of all the votes.

 

In the Senate, the counting is even more complicated. The voting system is “proportional representation”. This aims to elect a number of candidates from each party in proportion to the number of votes that party receives. This means a candidate can be elected with only a small proportion of the total votes, and therefore many small parties run in the Senate election, causing the white Senate ballot paper to be very large.

 

Voters can vote for the Senate in two different ways. In one way, they vote for their choice of parties “above the line”. In the other way, they vote for their choice of individual candidates, “below the line”.

 

All these votes need to be carefully sorted and counted in accordance with the “1” votes on each ballot paper. Only when that has been completed can the complicated calculations be done to work out the proportions of votes for each party and which candidates are elected.

 

In the future, electronic voting may make this faster. However, an electronic voting system needs to make sure there can be no fraud in how votes are counted. If the electronic voting allows people to vote from home, it also needs to avoid the risk of people being coerced to vote or have their vote cast by someone else, and it needs to protect the confidentiality of people’s votes. The Victorian Parliament is currently holding an inquiry into electronic voting, which is due to report April next year.