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Advance Summary:
1. A recent Tasmanian ALP member/delegate ballot for Senate ticket preselections has raised the question of how member ballots for Senate tickets should be best conducted.
2. The use of standardised Hare-Clark (or other similar STV systems) for these ballots should be avoided, because such systems are designed to conduct elections in which all positions won have roughly equal value.
3. The use of standardised Hare-Clark can therefore mean that a minority-faction candidate gets either an easily winnable or an unwinnable (without a high below the line vote) position, depending on the way votes split up between other candidates.
4. Such a system therefore creates a big risk of tactical voting.
5. This article suggests an alternative, which is to set the quota off the number of positions on the ticket that are expected to be automatic wins, rather than off the number of candidates to be preselected from the cutup.
6. This article also discusses (scroll way down) the Tasmanian Greens' Senate preselection system.
========================================================================This one's hugely technical, and is not aimed at a general audience. Please don't say I didn't warn you. There is just no other way.
