Below the Line

Are you eligible to vote in this year’s Australian federal election? Thinking of giving preferences to all of the senate candidates in your state or territory, but worried about stuffing it up and rendering your vote informal? That was me in 2007. After carefully working out my preferences and writing them down on paper to bring with me to the polling booth, I realised afterwards that I had assigned two candidates the same number! Of course, with 68 candidates in Victoria for the six senate positions, it was bound to happen.

The tool on this site lets you prepare your below-the-line senate vote ahead of the big day, reordering candidates individually or by group. Once you’re happy with it, you can print it out in a form that’s easy to transcribe on to the real ballot paper on polling day.

For the moment, you can use the tool based on the 2010 senate ballot papers. Just click on your state or territory at the top right of this page to give it a go.

★ Latest news: June 13: Update for 2013