Factors affecting the WA State Election
... I believe that through the use of both preferential and proportional voting in the WA electoral system, parliament accurately reflects the will of the people and is truly representative. Preferential voting is used in the Legislative Assembly in WA. In a preferential election voters number each candidate in order of preference. ... Preferential Voting means that voters can make a protest vote for a minor party which may actually affect the outcome of the election because of preference distribution. For example, in the 2001 WA State election One Nation directing their preferences away from the sitting parliamentarians made a considerable impact on the outcome of some marginal seats. ... For example, Labor at the last state election were forced to consider Greens policy on the protection of the Old Growth Forests in order to gain Greens preferences. ... This leads to voters giving preferences to parties they dont support, such as when One Nation voters in the 2001 election gave preferences to the non-sitting members regardless of policy. ... For example, in WA in 2001 the National Party only won 3.26% of the state’s vote and managed to pick up 5 seats in the Lower House, but the Greens received 7.