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.
Read more about this topic: Langer Vote
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