Alternate Method of Preferential Voting #2

Eligibility - Queensland citizens
Principal Petitioner:
Bruce Vaschina
112/11 West Dianne Street
LAWNTON QLD 4501
Total Signatures - 269
Sponsoring Member: The Clerk of the Parliament
Posting Date: 9/8/2022
Closing Date: 31/1/2023
Tabled Date: 21/2/2023
Responded By: Hon Shannon Fentiman MP on 23/3/2023
TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland

Queensland citizens draws to the attention of the House, that e-Petition 3779-22 highlights the tendency of the current "two-candidate preferred" system to "funnel" votes towards major opposing parties. This tends to divide society into opposing "camps" rather than leading towards a more harmonious "middle ground" position that finds reasonable support and less strident opposition. As such, what could be termed, a "middle candidate preferred" system was proposed. However, on closer examination, your petitioners have noted that the proposed solution could potentially lead to an anomalous result in the other direction whereby the middle position could be elected even with almost nil first preference support.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to follow the request of e-Petition 3779-22 and hold a referendum as requested but with modified preference weightings as follows:

2nd preference = 57/200 (= 0.285)

3rd preference = 57/400

4th preference = 57/800 etc.

Last preference = 0

The example given in e-Petition 3779-22 would, under this revised model, lead to:

Candidate A: 35 + 14 x 0.285 = 38.99

Candidate B: 33 + 18 x 0.285 = 38.13

Candidate C: 32 + (35 + 33) x 0.285 = 51.38 (= winner)

In the situation where two candidates had significant majority support, an example would be:

Candidate A: 40 (P1) + 9 (P2) x 0.285 = 42.565

Candidate B: 40 (P1) + 11 (P2) x 0.285 = 43.135 (= winner)

Candidate C: 20 (P1) + 80 (P2) x 0.285 = 42.8