Australian elections have some notable characteristics.
- Voting is compulsory.
- Elections are run by a non-partisan organisation.
- Districts are drawn by a non-partisan organisation.
- Elections are held on a Saturday.
- Preferential voting is used.
- Paper ballots are used.
These details are true for both federal and state elections. Details below the fold.
Voting is compulsory.
If you are enrolled and don't vote, you get a small fine, although I've heard it's not hard to get out of the fine if you try. At the last few Australian federal elections, around 95% of the enrolled population voted.
This may sound objectionable to some people. Americans typically consider voting to be a right, and with that right is the right to not vote. An alternative viewpoint -- one that makes sense with compulsory voting -- is that voting is a responsibility, a civic duty. If you really disapprove of all candidates, you can cast an illegitimate vote, but you do have to show up. (And I don't think it's compulsory to enrol, but I'm not sure about that; at the very least, everybody is strongly encouraged to enrol.)
It means that there is no need for GOTV (get-out-the-vote) efforts. It also means that candidates cannot ignore any segments of the population. Finally, small but motivated groups cannot have a disproportionate effect on the result. See this diary for more details about compulsory voting.
Elections are run by a non-partisan organisation.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) runs Australian federal elections, and also maintains the electoral rolls. It is an independent, non-partisan organisation. Each state has a corresponding state-level electoral commission.
This means that there is little scope for political parties, particular those in government, to influence the conduct of elections or the make-up of the electoral rolls. Indeed, one of the AEC's aims is to make voting as easy as possible.
Districts are drawn by a non-partisan organisation.
The AEC is also responsible for defining districts, and redefining them as population shifts occur.
The consequence of this is that there is no gerrymandering. Electoral districts have reasonable shapes and cover sensible regions.
Elections are held on a Saturday.
This means that it's easy for almost everybody to vote. Early voting (by mail) is also possible, for those people who can't vote on a Saturday.
Preferential voting is used.
In the House of Representatives, you vote in order from your favourite candidate to least favourite: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. This is also called instant run-off voting (IRV).
In the Senate, you can vote that way, although there's typically 50-100 candidates in each state so you also have the option of putting a single preference for a single party -- if you do that you get the preferential order chosen by that party.
The consequence of this is that you can vote for a smaller party first, for example, and your preferred large party second, and your vote won't be "wasted". In particular, it sends a message to the large party.
The vote counting isn't made much more complicated by preferential voting. Results for the House of representatives are usually known within a few hours of the polls closing, and for the closest districts results are usually known within a few days. Things take longer for the Senate (up to a few weeks to determine the final few senators), but that is because a form of proportional representation is used which makes the counting more complicated.
Paper ballots are used.
No electronic machines are involved, for casting or counting votes. Everybody uses a pen to mark their voting cards. Votes are counted by hand. And because the AEC organises the whole election, the voting cards have the same simple design everywhere.
Thus there is a clear paper trail. And, as the previous section made clear, vote counting doesn't take long even though it's done by hand. Typically 95% or more of results are known in a few hours.
Summary.
Overall, Australian elections are organised consistently across the country, relatively simple, very inclusive, and the results are uncontroversial. These are good things.