Proportional Representation Society of Australia Inc.
	+61429176725	info@prsa.org.au	www.prsa .org.au
			2025-02-15

"First-past-the-post" (plurality) systems are markedly inferior to
single transferable vote (preferential) electoral systems

"First-past-the-post" used to fill a single vacancy:

A "First-Past-the-Post", or plurality, electoral system results in the election of a candidate that can be supported by less than 50% of the voters, with the remaining voters preferring somebody else.

That unsatisfactory and undemocratic outcome is avoided with the Single Transferable Vote (preferential voting), where the ballot-papers of those that voted for the least well-supported candidates are examined successively and transferred to remaining candidates until one of those remaining candidates receives an absolute majority of the votes cast, i.e. more votes than the combined votes of the remaining candidate or candidates whose votes have not been needed to produce such a majority. Australia’s House of Representatives has been elected by preferential voting since the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 was passed in its original form in that year.

In the first decade of Australia's federation, its Parliament recognized the fairness of transferable voting over plurality voting. In its vote to choose the site of the eventual national capital, the House of Representatives resolved to choose the site by using transferable voting, which took place on 08 October 1908, when Canberra prevailed over Dalgety.

"First-past-the-post" used to fill multiple vacancies:

Various arrangements are possible here, and each of them has proved to be unsatisfactory, compared with the PR-STV alternative.

Examples are:

• The Single Non-transferable Vote, used for elections in Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Japan's Upper House, and formerly,  Japan's & Korea's Lower Houses
• The Limited Non-transferable Vote, used for elections in Gibraltar and, from 1867-85, for some constituencies for the UK House of Commons
• The Cumulative Vote, formerly used in Illinois, USA, and still used for elections to many US company boards, and on Norfolk Island
• The Multiple Non-transferable Vote, with plumping accepted as in the Isle of Man, or with plumping not accepted, as for Australia's Senate 1902-17

Click here to see The Fatal Flaws in First-past-the-post Electoral Systems.