Langer vote
Encyclopedia
A Langer vote is a vote marked "1, 2, 3, 3 , 3. . ., etc" (or in a similar manner) in the Australian electoral system
. It was widely publicised by Albert Langer
, an Australian political activist, as a means of limiting votes to the voter's preferred parties, and thus avoiding the statutory instruction to mark the ballot paper by indicating a valid ranking of preferences to all other parties and candidates.
Voters were advised to mark 1, 2, . .n, for favoured candidates, but to mark a repetition of the next digit against each of the remaining candidates. For example a vote would be marked 1, 2, 3, 3, 3. The remaining candidates would then not receive preferences. At the time, this was widely understood to constitute a valid vote. Had this view been upheld, voters could avail themselves de facto of Optional Preferential Voting
, which the prevailing system was designed to exclude.
The Langer voting method was made invalid by amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act
on July 17, 1998. A Langer vote is now classed as an informal vote.
Provided that Section 270 of the act is complied with, a voter can number all squares (or all squares but one), starting with 1, containing a minor error that will limit the allocation of preferences but not render the ballot informal. This allows a person to effect a Langer-style vote by numbering the ballot paper (say) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10... (5, 6, 7 replaced by 5, 5, 7). In this case, the voter's preferences up to position 4 would be distributed before the vote was exhausted.
Australian electoral system
The Australian electoral system has evolved over nearly 150 years of continuous democratic government, and has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, preferential voting and the use of proportional voting to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate.- Compulsory voting...
. It was widely publicised by Albert Langer
Albert Langer
Albert Langer is an Australian political activist, best known for his 1996 conviction and gaoling on contempt charges after breaching an injunction forbidding his advocacy of marking electoral ballot papers in a way discouraged by the Australian Electoral Commission...
, an Australian political activist, as a means of limiting votes to the voter's preferred parties, and thus avoiding the statutory instruction to mark the ballot paper by indicating a valid ranking of preferences to all other parties and candidates.
Voters were advised to mark 1, 2, . .n, for favoured candidates, but to mark a repetition of the next digit against each of the remaining candidates. For example a vote would be marked 1, 2, 3, 3, 3. The remaining candidates would then not receive preferences. At the time, this was widely understood to constitute a valid vote. Had this view been upheld, voters could avail themselves de facto of Optional Preferential Voting
Optional Preferential Voting
Optional Preferential Voting is a system of vote-casting used in the states of Queensland and New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australia. Most Australian elections are run under full-preference preferential voting, where all candidates must be numbered in order of the preference of the...
, which the prevailing system was designed to exclude.
The Langer voting method was made invalid by amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act
Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 replaced the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 which defined who was allowed to vote in Australian federal elections. The Commonwealth Electoral Act comprehensively rewrote the Franchise Act and introduced instant-runoff voting, known in Australia as Preferential...
on July 17, 1998. A Langer vote is now classed as an informal vote.
The treatment of ‘Langer-style’ votes changed in 1998. Langer-style ballots are typically numbered so that, at a point chosen by the elector, the preferences stop or begin to repeat (for example, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3. . .). Before 1998, such ballots were counted up to the point that the numbering stopped or became non-consecutive, and were then classified as exhausted. Until 1993, the number of Langer-style votes was small, but in 1996 there was a considerable increase. It is possible this was due to the well-publicised court action against Albert Langer. Since legislative change in 1998, Langer-style votes have been counted as informal, and their number has declined considerably.It is an offence to cause printing, publishing or distribution of any matter or thing that is likely to mislead or deceive an elector in relation to the casting of a vote. and advocacy of informal voting is likely to breach the Act.
Vote saving
In order to "save" votes, a small number of errors are permitted on the larger Senate ballot papers. Paragraph 21 notes that:- An example would be a ballot paper with 18 candidates on which the voter numbers all of the squares but repeats the number 16 or leaves out the number 16. In this case, the ballot paper will not be informal (that is, it will not be rejected from the scrutiny entirely), but only the preferences from 1 to 15 can be used in the scrutiny.
Provided that Section 270 of the act is complied with, a voter can number all squares (or all squares but one), starting with 1, containing a minor error that will limit the allocation of preferences but not render the ballot informal. This allows a person to effect a Langer-style vote by numbering the ballot paper (say) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10... (5, 6, 7 replaced by 5, 5, 7). In this case, the voter's preferences up to position 4 would be distributed before the vote was exhausted.