Your Vote, Your Voice: Why Preference 'Deals' Are a Myth in Australia

In Short

• Total Voter Control: Candidates and parties cannot "give" or "trade" your preferences; the power to decide the order of candidates rests entirely with you.
• The "How-to-Vote" Reality: The colorful cards handed out at polling booths are merely suggestions or guides, not legally binding instructions.
• No "Wasted" Votes: The preferential system ensures that if your first choice is eliminated, your vote automatically flows to your next preference, ensuring your voice still counts.

If you’ve spent any time scrolling through social media lately, you’ve likely encountered a very specific type of electoral anxiety. It usually sounds something like: “I’d love to vote for XYZ, but I’m worried about where they’ll send my preferences.”

It’s a fair concern. In an era of complex digital algorithms and backroom political maneuvering, it’s natural to assume our ballot papers are subject to the same kind of deal between candidates.

And often, those who sprout this - in caps lock - online, are pretty convincing.

However, there is a fundamental rule of Australian democracy that often gets lost: In the House of Representatives, your preferences belong to you, not the candidate.

There is a persistent idea that candidates conspire before an election and trade their preferences. The theory goes that if you vote for Candidate A, they have the power to hand over your vote to Candidate B if they don't win.

In the federal seat of Farrer we are heading to the polls soon, following the resignation of our incumbent Federal MP Sussan Ley.

Like every other electorate in the country, it is legally impossible for any candidate to give preferences to another.

When you fill out that green ballot paper, you are creating a set of instructions. If your first-choice candidate is eliminated from the count, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) looks at your ballot to see who you chose next. No party official or candidate can reach into that pile and redirect your '2' or '3' to someone else.

We’ve all seen the volunteers lining the entrance to polling places, armed with those colorful slips of paper. These "How-to-Vote" cards are the source of most of the confusion.

When a party or candidate enters a preference deal, they aren't changing the mechanics of the vote; they are simply offering a suggestion. They are printing a voting guide and hoping you follow it.

That flyer is a recommendation from a candidate on how to order your preferences to best support their own platform.

As the voter, you have the absolute right to ignore the card entirely and number the boxes in any order they see fit (as long as you vote according to the AEC rules, such as using ticks or crosses instead of numbers).

The beauty of our system is that it allows for a sophisticated vote. You don't have to worry about wasting your vote on a minor party or an independent candidate.

If your preferred candidate doesn't get enough support to stay in the race, your vote doesn't disappear into a black hole. It simply moves to your next choice. This ensures that the person who eventually represents Farrer in Canberra is the one who holds the broadest support across the electorate.

Next time you hear someone worry about where a candidate is "sending" their preferences to another candidate, tell them that is incorrect. Remind them that when you vote, you're ranking your options, and they are the numbers that matter. You decide exactly where the preferences go - no one else.

Watch the AECs video explainer HERE Preferential voting: House of Representatives explainer