Commonwealth Consolidated Regulations

AUSTRALIAN FILM, TELEVISION AND RADIO SCHOOL (ELECTIONS) REGULATIONS - SCHEDULE 2

(regulation 16)

Procedure for counting votes
1. In this Schedule, continuing candidate means a candidate not already elected or excluded from the count.
2. The Returning Officer shall reject and place in a separate parcel all informal ballot-papers.
3. The Returning Officer shall arrange the unrejected ballot-papers under the names of the respective candidates by placing in a separate parcel all those on which a first preference is indicated for the same candidate.
4. The Returning Officer shall count the first preference votes given for each candidate on all unrejected ballot-papers.
5. The Returning Officer shall then determine a quota by dividing the total number of first preference votes by one more than the number of candidates required to be elected and by increasing the quotient so obtained (disregarding any remainder) by one.
6. Any candidate who has received a number of first preference votes equal to or greater than the quota so determined shall be elected.
7. Where the number of first preference votes received by a candidate is equal to the quota, the whole of the ballot-papers containing those votes shall be set aside as finally dealt with.
8. Unless all vacancies have been filled, the surplus votes (that is, any number in excess of the quota) of each elected candidate shall be transferred to the continuing candidates, in proportion to the voter's preference, as follows:

(a)

The Returning Officer shall divide the number of the elected candidate's surplus votes by the total number of first preference votes received by him and the resulting fraction shall, for the purposes of this paragraph, be the transfer value of that candidate's surplus votes.

(b)

The Returning Officer shall arrange in separate parcels for the continuing candidates the whole of the ballot-papers of the elected candidate according to the next available preference indicated on the ballot-papers.

(c)

The Returning Officer shall ascertain, in respect of each continuing candidate, the total number of ballot-papers of the elected candidate that bear the next available preference for that continuing candidate and shall, by multiplying that total by the transfer value of the elected candidate's surplus votes, determine the number of votes to be transferred from the elected candidate to each continuing candidate. If, as a result of the multiplication, any fraction results, so many of those fractions, taken in the order of their magnitude, beginning with the largest, as are necessary to ensure that the number of votes transferred equals the number of the elected candidate's surplus votes shall be reckoned as of the value of unity and the remaining fractions shall be ignored.

(d)

The Returning Officer shall then, in respect of each continuing candidate, forthwith take at random from the parcel containing the ballot-papers of the elected candidate that bear the next available preference for that continuing candidate, the previously-determined number of ballot-papers and transfer those ballot-papers to the continuing candidate.

(e)

The ballot-papers containing the first preference votes of the elected candidate that have not been transferred (that is to say, the ballot-papers containing the number of votes equal to the quota) shall be put aside as finally dealt with.

9. When the surplus votes of all elected candidates have been transferred to the continuing candidates as provided by paragraph 8, any continuing candidate who has received a number of votes equal to or greater than the quota shall be elected. Unless all the vacancies have been filled, the surplus votes of the elected candidate shall be transferred to the continuing candidates in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 8, but, in the application of those provisions, only those ballot-papers that have been transferred to the elected candidate from a candidate previously elected shall be taken into consideration.
10. If, as a result of the transfer of the surplus votes of a candidate elected in pursuance of paragraph 9, or elected at a later stage of the scrutiny, a continuing candidate has received a number of votes equal to or greater than the quota, he shall be elected. Unless all the vacancies have been filled, the surplus votes of the elected candidate shall be transferred to the continuing candidates in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 8, but, in the application of those provisions, only those ballot-papers that have been transferred to the elected candidate from the candidate or candidates elected at the last preceding count shall be taken into consideration.
11. The ballot-papers containing the first preference votes of a candidate who has been elected in pursuance of the provisions of paragraph 9 or 10, together with the ballot-papers transferred to him from a candidate previously elected or excluded that have not been further transferred, shall be set aside as finally dealt with.
12 If, after the count of the first preference votes or after the transfer of the surplus votes of the elected candidates, no candidate has, or less than the number of candidates required to be elected have, received a number of votes equal to the quota, the candidate who has the fewest votes shall be excluded and the whole of his ballot-papers shall be transferred by the Returning Officer to the continuing candidates next in order of the voters' available preferences.
13. If thereupon, or as the result of the exclusion of a candidate at any subsequent stage of the scrutiny, a continuing candidate has received a number of votes equal to or greater than the quota, he shall be elected. Unless all vacancies have been filled, the surplus votes of the elected candidate shall be transferred to the continuing candidates in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 8, but, in the application of those provisions, only those ballot-papers that have been transferred to the elected candidate from the candidate last excluded shall be taken into consideration. The ballot-papers containing the first preference votes of the elected candidate, together with the ballot-papers transferred to him from a candidate previously elected or excluded that have not been further transferred, shall be set aside as finally dealt with. If no continuing candidate has received a number of votes equal to the quota, the process of excluding the candidate with the fewest votes and the transferring of ballot-papers containing those votes to the continuing candidates shall be repeated by the Returning Officer until a continuing candidate has received a number of votes equal to the quota or, in respect of the last vacancy, a majority of the votes remaining in the count, but the process of excluding candidates shall not be repeated after the number of continuing candidates is equal to the number of unfilled vacancies.
14. A continuing candidate who has received a number of votes equal to the quota shall be elected.
15. After all the candidates who have received a number of votes equal to the quota are elected:

(a)

where there is one remaining unfilled vacancy — the candidate who has received a majority of the votes remaining in the count; or

(b)

where the number of continuing candidates is equal to the number of remaining unfilled vacancies — those candidates;

shall be elected.

16. Where, on the count of the first preference votes, or at the same time at any subsequent stage of the scrutiny, 2 or more candidates are elected by reason of their having received a number of votes equal to or greater than the quota, any transfer of the surplus votes of those candidates shall be carried out in the order, first of the candidate with the largest surplus, second of the candidate with the next largest surplus, and so on.
17. Notwithstanding anything contained in the preceding provisions of this Schedule, a transfer of the surplus votes of an elected candidate shall be deferred (but without affecting the order of that transfer) so long as the total number of those surplus votes is less than the difference between the total votes of the 2 continuing candidates with the fewest votes. In that case, unless all vacancies have been filled, the candidate with the fewest votes shall be first excluded and the ballot-papers containing his votes shall be transferred to the continuing candidates as provided by paragraph 12.
18. If on any count 2 or more candidates have an equal number of votes and one of them has to be excluded, the Returning Officer shall decide by lot which shall be excluded. If, at the time of their election, 2 or more candidates have an equal number of votes, the Returning Officer shall decide by lot the order of election of those candidates and the order of the transfer of their surplus votes. If in the final count for filling the last vacancy 2 candidates have an equal number of votes, the Returning Officer shall decide by lot which candidate shall be elected.
19. If, on the count of the first preferences, or at the same time at any subsequent stage of the scrutiny, 2 or more candidates are elected by reason of their having received a number of votes equal to or greater than the quota, the election of those candidates shall be deemed to have been in the order, first of the candidate with the largest surplus, second of the candidate with the next largest surplus, and so on.
20. Where on a transfer it is found that a ballot-paper:

(a)

does not show a number indicating the voter's next preference opposite to the name of a candidate who has not already been elected or excluded;

(b)

shows the same number as the voter's next preference opposite to the names of 2 or more candidates; or

(c)

omits to indicate the number of the voter's next preference in the numerical sequence of the order of the voter's preference:

the ballot-paper shall be set aside as finally dealt with.