Group voting ticket

[2] In South Australia House of Assembly elections, parties can submit preference tickets which are used to save a vote that would otherwise be informal.

Every Australian jurisdiction that has introduced GVTs has ballot papers with two sections separated by a line.

The scope of a number above the line is merely the list of candidates for that party, so Group Voting Tickets are no longer used in those elections.

Complete preferences voting was the only option available for the Australian Senate and the upper houses of other jurisdictions.

With proportional representation and preferential voting, it was daunting for many voters to have to fill in scores of boxes on the ballot paper.

Under the new system a voter cast a valid vote if they placed a single mark above the line instead of the scores on a typical Senate ballot paper.

[11] Following the use of tactical preference tickets and the record number of minor parties contesting the 1999 NSW election for the New South Wales Legislative Council, a modified form of "above the line" voting was introduced for the 2003 NSW election, effectively abolishing GVTs.

GVTs came under scrutiny at the 2013 Australian election for multiple candidates getting provisionally elected with the vast majority of the 14.3% quota being filled from preferences, with "preference whisperer" Glenn Druery's Minor Party Alliance organising tight cross-preferencing between minor parties.

[24] The Sports Party's Wayne Dropulich was on track for a period of time to win a Senate seat from 0.2% in Western Australia, coming 21st out of 28 groups.

[29] Senator Nick Xenophon and larger parties including the government proposed changes to the GVT system.

[30][31][32] Following the 2018 Victorian state election, the Victorian Greens demanded that Victoria discontinue using group voting, describing it as "corrupt" and "undemocratic", following the election of Sustainable Australia candidate Clifford Hayes to the legislative council on 1.2% of the primary vote.

[33] In the 2021 Western Australian state election, GVTs once again came under scrutiny after the Daylight Saving Party was elected to the Legislative Council with just 98 votes, or 0.2% of the electorate; the electorate had notably voted strongly against adopting a daylight saving system in prior referendums.

[34] This led to the state government to quickly pass legislation which abolished GVTs in November of that same year.

A substantial proportion of informal votes have a number 1, tick or cross in a single box.