The impact of optional preferential voting on the 2001 Queensland state election

During the 2001 Queensland state election, the Australian Labor Party's (ALP) ‘Just Vote 1’ campaign message sought to limit preference exchange among conservative parties. This paper analyses the impact of this tactic that produced a 53.6 per cent increase in the exhausted vote over the last election. The size of the landslide to Labor made this tactic irrelevant but it affected the outcome in five seats and could have been decisive in a closer election. The concern is raised that the optional preferential system produces a less representative and less democratic outcome than the compulsory preferential system.Arts, Education & Law Group, School of Humanities, Languages and Social SciencesFull Tex