| Party | Continuing Elected 2015 |
Facing Election Elected 2011 |
Current Council |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal/National Coalition | 6/3 | 7/4 | 13/7 |
| Labor Party | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| The Greens | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Christian Democratic Party | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Shooters Fishers and Farmers | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Animal Justice Party | 1 | .. | 1 |
| Total | 21 | 21 | 42 |
- 21 members are elected at large from a single state wide electorate.
- Candidates appear grouped together on the ballot paper in columns, the left to right ordering of groups determined by a random draw.
- Candidates are listed in each column in an order determined by the party/group. Ungrouped candidates appear in the right hand column, positions within the column determined by random draw.
- Most columns on the ballot appear represent political parties, and the party name/names appear at the top of the column. Non-party candidates are also allowed to group in a single column, but they do not have a name at the top of the column.
- A group/party must nominate at least 15 candidates to have a group voting square printed above the line. There cannot be more than 21 candidates in a group. The ungrouped column and groups with fewer than 15 candidates do not have a group voting square.
- Electors can vote above the line by numbering preferences in the group voting squares, or vote below the line to express preferences for candidates.
- An above the line vote must have a first preference but all further preferences are optional.
- A below the line vote must have 15 preferences but all further preferences are optional.
- The quota for election is 4.55% or just over 200,000 votes. The high rate of exhausted preferences means that the final seats can be won by parties with less than 4.55%.
- At the 2015 election, 83% of all formal ballot papers were single ones above the line. 15% were above the line votes with preferences, and only 2% of ballot papers were below the line votes.
- Senate instructions say to number 6 squares above the line or 12 preferences below. A savings provision means that any ballot paper with at least a single first preference above the line is formal.
- The quota for election is 14.3% versus 4.55% for the Legislative council.
- Where 83% of Legislative Council ballot papers were a single ones in 2015, in NSW at the 2016 Senate election, only 4.3% of ballot papers were single ones and 81.3% had six preferences, 4.1% had 2-5 preferences, 4.9% had more than six preferences, and 5.4% were below the line votes.
- - Tally all first preference votes by candidate. Above the line votes are allocated to the lead candidate of each group. Determine the quota in votes. (Formal votes divided by 22 plus 1) Go to step (2).
- - Declare any candidate with more than a quota of votes elected. Go to Step (3).
- - Set aside a quota of votes for each elected candidate, and distribute all surplus to quota votes as preferences. Do this for each over quota candidate. Go to Step (4).
- - Is there any candidate with more than a quota of votes? If so go back to step (2), otherwise go to step (5).
- - Select the lowest polling candidate and exclude them from the count. If there are more candidates remaining than vacancies left to be filled, go to step (6), otherwise go to step (7).
- - Examine the ballot papers of the excluded candidate and distribute them to candidates remaining in the count according to the preferences on the ballot paper. If there are no further preferences the ballot paper is moved to the 'exhsusted' tally and plays no further part in the count. If a candidate reaches a quota at this point go to step (2), otherwise repeat step (6).
- - If the number of candidates remaining equals the number of vacancies left to be filled, declare the remaining candidates elected even if they fall short of the quota.
| 2003 | 2007 | 2011 | 2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor Party | 9 | 8 | 5 | 6 |
| Liberal/National Coalition | 7 | 7 | 10 | 9 |
| Greens | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Labor Party | 1 | 1 | .. | .. |
| Liberal/National Coalition | .. | 1 | 1 | .. |
| Greens | 1 | .. | 1 | .. |
| Christian Democrats | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Shooters and Fishers | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Animal Justice | .. | .. | .. | 1 |
- Every party with an initial/partial vote above 2.41% has elected an MLC.
- Of the five parties with an initial/partial vote between 1.78% and 2.41%, two have been elected and three defeated.
- Two of those defeated, No Land Tax in 2015, and Pauline Hanson in 2011, were defeated by preferences. It should be noted that 85% of preferences exhaust by the end of the count so preferences are far less important than under the old ticket voting system.
- Preferences may be more important in 2019 if voters have learnt from filling in six above the line preferences at the 2016 Senate election. South Australia adopted the NSW one plus optional preferences system for last year's state election and saw above the line preference rates above 40%, more than twice the rate seen at NSW elections.
- At the four elections since 2013, some small parties have pushed their proportion of ballot papers with preferences above 25%, but they must distribute how-to-vote material to achieve this. Major parties have had much less influence. In 2015 29.1% of Green voters voted above the line with preferences, but only a minority of them followed the Green how-to-vote recommendation. As noted above, the proportion of ballot papers with preferences may increase in 2019 given voter experience of the new Senate system in 2016.
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