Legislative Council Division of Pembroke

Number the boxes from 1 to 5 in the order of your choice. Your vote will not count unless you number at least 3 boxes.

Introducing: The Robson Rotation

The candidates on the left are presented in alphabetical order. But when you go into the booth, you will not find the candidates in this order. Not only that, but you won't find the candidates in the same order as the other voters around you.

In parliamentary and local elections in Tasmania, ballot orders are pseudo-randomised by way of the Robson Rotation. Championed by the former Liberal member for Bass, Neil Robson, the system works (in Tasmania) as follows: (using a five candidate election for example)

Step 1. Randomly select an initial order for the candidates.

  1. A
  2. B
  3. C
  4. D
  5. E

Step 2. Apply an algorithm to generate more ballots, so each candidate appears in each position.

  1. C
  2. A
  3. E
  4. B
  5. D
  1. E
  2. C
  3. D
  4. A
  5. B
  1. D
  2. E
  3. B
  4. C
  5. A
  1. B
  2. D
  3. A
  4. E
  5. C

Step 3. Take the initial order, flip the order of all but the first candidate, then run the algorithm again.

  1. A
  2. E
  3. D
  4. C
  5. B
  1. D
  2. A
  3. B
  4. E
  5. C
  1. B
  2. D
  3. C
  4. A
  5. E
  1. C
  2. B
  3. E
  4. D
  5. A
  1. E
  2. C
  3. A
  4. B
  5. D

Step 4. Print and distribute ballots so that they rotate between the generated orders.

Fun fact! The Australian Capital Territory also uses the Robson Rotation, but their five-candidate algorithm generates sixty different orders instead of the ten you see here!