Primary school factsheet - Hare-Clark
What is the Hare-Clark electoral system?
Hare-Clark is a type of proportional representation system.
This system is used when you need to elect more than 1 person from each electorate.
Hare-Clark is used in the ACT to elect Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly. They are called MLAs for short.
There are 25 MLAs. They are elected from 5 electorates called Brindabella, Ginninderra, Kurrajong, Murrumbidgee and Yerrabi.
MLAs are elected for 4 years.
How did the Hare-Clark electoral system get its name?
Hare-Clark was named after the two people who created it. Sir Thomas Hare was an English lawyer. He created the system in 1859. Andrew Inglis Clark was a Tasmanian politician. He made some changes to the system to suit Tasmania.
Hare-Clark was first used in a Tasmanian election in 1897.
Voting
The people who want to be elected are called candidates.
You show which candidates you are voting for on the ballot paper by using numbers to show your choices.
You start from 1 and keep numbering the boxes beside each candidate you like.
The order of your numbers shows the order in which you like the candidates. This is called showing your preferences.
You are electing 5 Members so you need to number at least 5 boxes. You can number more boxes if you want to.
How are votes counted?
All the ballot papers with a number '1' are counted. These are the formal votes.
Ballot papers without a number '1' or with more than one number '1' are called informal votes. These are not able to be used to elect candidates. Ticks and crosses are not counted.
To be certain of election, a candidate needs a quota of votes. The quota for each of the ACT’s 5-member electorates is about 16.67% of all votes cast.
The quota is calculated by:
- dividing the number of formal votes by one more than there are vacancies in the election
- then adding one (1) to the result.
For an ACT’s electorate with five vacancies this means:
- dividing the number of formal votes by 5 plus one more (5 + 1) which is a total of 6
- then adding one (1) to the result.
Read about electorate boundaries.
Any candidate who has the same number of votes as the quota, or more, is elected.
If all the vacancies have been filled, the election is finished.
If all the vacancies have not been filled, check to see if any candidate has more votes than the quota. If a candidate has more votes than the quota, go to step 4. If there are no candidates with more than the quota, go to step 5.
When a candidate has more votes than the quota these are called surplus votes. Surplus votes are given to other candidates by looking at the next choice shown by the voter on the ballot paper. Work out the new total of votes for each candidate then go back to step 3.
If there are still vacancies, find the candidate who has the lowest number of votes. This candidate is now taken out of the vote counting. This is called excluding the candidate. Transfer each of the candidate’s votes to another candidate by looking at the next choice shown by the voter on each ballot paper. Work out the new total of votes for each candidate then go back to step 3.
The process of distributing surplus votes from elected candidates and excluding the candidate with the fewest votes goes on until all the vacancies are filled.
Casual vacancies
A casual vacancy happens when a Member leaves the Legislative Assembly before the next election. A new Member needs to be elected.
Elections ACT recounts ballot papers from the last election to elect the new Member. Only the ballot papers that elected the Member who is leaving are counted.
Only candidates who were on the same ballot paper can be in the recount. They must fill out a form to tell us they want to be included.
The recount is done by looking at the next number that voters put on the ballot paper. The new Member is the person with the most votes.
Casual vacancies in the ACT Legislative Assembly
| Assembly | Vacating member | Date of resignation | Replacement member | Date elected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | Paul Whalan | 30 April 1990 | Terry Connolly | 1 May 1990 |
| Second | Lou Westende | 25 July 1994 | Bill Stefaniak | 23 August 1994 |
| Third | Terry Connolly | 19 February 1996 | Marion Reilly | 21 March 1996 |
| Rosemary Follett | 12 December 1996 | Simon Corbell | 9 January 1997 | |
| Tony De Domenico | 30 January 1997 | Louise Littlewood | 13 February 1997 | |
| Fourth | Kate Carnell | 13 December 2000 | Jacqui Burke | 18 January 2001 |
| Fifth | Gary Humphries | 24 January 2003 | Jacqui Burke | 10 February 2003 |
| Kerrie Tucker | 14 September 2004 | Not filled as 2004 pre-election period had commenced. | ||
| Sixth | Ted Quinlan | 21 March 2006 | Andrew Barr | 5 April 2006 |
| Seventh | Jon Stanhope | 16 May 2011 | Chris Bourke | 1 June 2011 |
| Eighth | Zed Seselja | 11 June 2013 | Nicole Lawder | 26 June 2013 |
| Katy Gallagher | 23 December 2014 | Meegan Fitzharris | 16 January 2015 | |
| Mary Porter | 19 February 2016 | Jayson Hinder | 7 March 2016 | |
| Brendan Smyth | 15 July 2016 | Val Jeffery | 29 July 2016 | |
| Ninth | Steve Doszpot | 25 November 2017 | Candice Burch | 13 December 2017 |
| Meegan Fitzharris | 8 July 2019 | Deepak Raj Gupta | 23 July 2019 | |
| Tenth | Alistair Coe | 12 March 2021 | James Milligan | 26 March 2021 |
| Giulia Jones | 2 June 2022 | Ed Cocks | 22 June 2022 | |
| Johnathan Davis | 12 November 2023 | Laura Nuttall | 28 November 2023 |
Previous Assembly elections
Education
Fact sheets
- Fact sheet - The ACT Electoral Commission & Elections ACT
- Fact sheet - Authorising electoral material
- Fact sheet - Candidate information statements
- Fact sheet - Casual vacancies
- Fact sheet - Compulsory voting
- Fact sheet - Electoral expenditure cap
- Fact sheet - Electoral information for ACT voters experiencing homelessness
- Fact sheet - Electoral information for homelessness agency workers
- Fact sheet - Enrolment and voting for people with a disability
- Fact sheet - Electoral information for families and carers
- Fact sheet - Glossary
- Fact sheet - Hare Clark
- Fact sheet - How to register a political party for ACT Legislative Assembly elections
- Fact sheet - Nomination of candidates
- Fact sheet - Non-party candidates
- Fact sheet - Prisoner enrolment and voting
- Fact sheet - Prohibited donors
- Fact sheet - Redistributions
- Fact sheet - Referendums
- Fact sheet - Regular reporting of gifts