By PATRICK ALEXANDER
Any time there’s a federal election approaching, you’ll see and hear Australians saying things like, “I’d like to vote for [Minor Party/Independent] but the most important thing is to keep [Major Party A] out, so I’d better vote for [Major Party B].”
But this concern doesn’t apply in Australia; we have a more elegant voting system than that. We seem to have picked up ideas about “wasting your vote” from American TV shows or something.
So here’s a comic designed to clear up this common misconception and explain how preferential voting works.
Patrick Alexander is known in Australia for his nationally published children’s comics, Pink Chickens and Tobias & Jube, and internationally for his webcomics, Raymondo Person and Hilarity Comics. More recently he has produced gag comics for the relaunched Dark Horse Presents. His work has been described as “p. funny”. You can visit his site here.
Are you planning to vote for a minor party? What attracts you to voting for a minor party?
Top Comments
Voting is too hard. I'm going to skip it and let smart people work it out.
Then you will get a fine
The problem with mandatory voting is that it encourages lazy voting. People who would otherwise just stay home go and vote on little or no information.
I would much rather have elected officials chosen by educated voters.
Australia would have the perfect election system if it wasn't for mandatory voting. People who don't pay much attention are going to vote for the major parties first because they're more familiar. Without mandatory voting Australia may have more diverse representation of parties.
This needs to be on the front page of the site. Seriously.