Moyne Shire: how a council election works | graphics

But how exactly does an election work? How do the preferences get distributed?

Let’s see if we can explain this as simply as possible.

First of all, the first preferences are counted.

If the election was decided on only the #1s on the ballot papers, the council would consist of Jim Doukas, Jordan Lockett, Daniel Meade, Colin Ryan, Mick Wolfe, Maurice Molan and Kelvin Goodall.

But this is a preferential system, which means that after preferences are distributed via a very complex process (more on that in a minute), Mr Molan and Mr Goodall missed out (more on that too).

The quota is different from council to council but it roughly equates to an eighth of the total number of formal ballots.

Jim Doukas was the only candidate to surpass the quota number of 1385 with first preferences, making him the first councillor elected.

If a candidate passes the quota number of 1385, their surplus votes go to whoever was #2 on the ballot but at a lower value – ie. they’re not worth a full vote.

The redistribution of second preferences from surplus ballots voting #1 for Mr Doukas pushed Daniel Meade past the magic number of 1385, making Mr Meade the second councillor elected.

With the Doukas redistribution, Mr Meade now has surplus votes that need to be redistributed as well.

Mr Meade’s surplus vote redistribution failed to push anyone past 1385 votes so the redistribution process heads to the bottom of the list.

After first preferences and the redistribution of surplus votes from Mr Doukas and Mr Meade, Susan Dennis has the least number of votes – 218. Her original first preference votes – 203 – are now passed on to her second preference at full value. The surplus votes she received from Mr Doukas are again redistributed (at the same value of 0.43630443), as are Mr Meade’s (at the same value of 0.04879275).

After Mrs Dennis is excluded and her votes redistributed, and if no one has now past 1385 votes, the candidate with the next lowest number of votes is excluded and their votes redistributed, and so on and so forth. As candidates pass 1385, their votes are redistributed.

The process of exclusions and elections at Moyne Shire proceeded as followed:

*NOTE: Number of votes at point of exclusion includes redistribution of surplus votes from other candidates.

Maurice Molan, despite having the sixth highest amount of #1 votes, fell 60 votes short of election due to not receiving enough votes via preference redistribution. Kelvin Goodall had the seventh highest amount of #1 votes, but received even fewer votes via preference redistribution, causing him to be the seventh candidate excluded.

The final make-up of the council is Jim Doukas, Daniel Meade, Jordan Lockett, Colin Ryan, Jill Parker, Ian Smith and Mick Wolfe.