How to make your vote count

Expert political analyst Kevin Bonham explains how to make the best use of your vote in the 2022 Tasmanian local government elections. In short: your vote is powerful, don’t just stop at 1-5 and do think about who you want to vote last as well as first.

“…if you want your vote to be more powerful then the more boxes you can number the better.  If two candidates are competing for a position and your vote numbers neither, then your vote can’t help decide between them and the decision will be made by other voters.  If you have numbered one ahead of the other, or one and not the other, then your vote may help if it happens to be still active in the preference process at that time.

Often people stop when they run out of candidates who they like.  If there are any candidates you are strongly opposed to, then it is better to keep going so that you can put other candidates who you might dislike slightly or have never heard of ahead of those you really cannot stand.  

Some voters are afraid of doing this because they think that numbering a candidate you don’t much like might help that candidate beat one of your top picks.  That’s not the way it works.  Your vote only affects one candidate at a time – your number 1 vote stays with your number 1 candidate until they are elected or excluded.  If they are excluded, it then passes to the next remaining candidate on your list at full value.  If they are elected, it may pass to the next remaining candidate at a reduced value.  If you rank candidate X ahead of candidate Y, the fact that you have ranked candidate Y at all can never help candidate Y beat candidate X.  

Numbering more boxes also makes it more likely your vote will appear in future recounts if councillors quit partway through a term.  

For the Mayoral and Deputy boxes, you only have to number 1, but again, your vote is more powerful if you rank as many candidates as possible.  I recommend numbering all the boxes (or leave the last one blank if you like, it makes zero difference.)…”  

Dr Kevin Bonham, 3 October 2022