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Tom Monto

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe heckled King Charles on behalf of Indigenous peoples of Australia. She had been elected through STV

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe heckled the King demanding return of "stolen lands".


Media say she is an "independent Indigenous" Senator, but actually she was elected as Greens candidate (federation of Green parties)


elected through STV


Victoria elected six  Senators in 2022 

five parties represented among succ. members

five women elected among Victoria's six Senators.


see Wikipedia Victorian election for info on first preference vote distribution and to de-code the party abbrevation in the official election results - the official vote count report.


official vote count report

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Victoria Senate election 2022 conducted using STV


Effective votes

five X quota 545,935  =       2,729,675

last seat filled by part. q  =       455,528

                                              3,185,203

out of total valid votes 3,822,000   83 percent effective votes


First preference votes for winners

Sarah Henderson Liberal 1.2M

Linda White Labour 1.2M

Bridget Mackenzie National   4,000 (her vote tally increased by 450,000 by the time she was elected)

Jana Stewart Labour 3,000            (her vote tally increased by 450,000 by the time she was elected)

Lidia Thorpe Greens 525,000

Ralph Babet United Aus.  152,000                    (his total tripled through vote transfers by the end)

so about 3.1M of 3.8M were cast as first preferences for those who won in the end.

82 percent of votes were placed as first preferences on those who won.


Women representation

five of six Senators elected in Victoria were women, including Lidia Thorpe.


Indigenous representation

Lidia Thorpe (elected Greens senator)  was prominent Indigenous activist.


Why was Lidia Thorpe elected?

Greens got more than 500,000 first-preference votes in first count.

so the party as a whole was close to getting quota (545,000) on first count, if they could concentrate their votes.

vote transfers allowed Greens to concentrate their vote and to pick up vote transfers from others.

And Thorpe, Greens' leading candidate, was elected with quota.


Lidia Thorpe's success 

Here's the vote count process, showing Thorpe's gradual ascent to attaining the quota.


first count

Lidia took lion's share of the Green votes

U THORPE L. GVIC 524,735 

 U FROGLEY A. GVIC 2,272  

 U AUSTIN S. GVIC 1,235 

 U PAYNE Z. GVIC 1,187


Thorpe's vote tally only slightly increased by count 184 when first Green candidate eliminated. 

least-pop Green candidate Payne excluded (eliminated)

most of that candidate's votes moved to Austin by marked pref of voters; some went to Thorpe or Frogley; rest moved to exhausted votes or across party lines


Thorpe's vote about same by count 204 when new least-pop Green candidate Austin excluded (eliminated)

most of that candidate's votes moved to Frogley by marked pref of voters; some went to Thorpe; rest moved to exhausted votes or across party lines


Thorpe's vote about same by count 224 when new least-pop Green candidate Frogley excluded (eliminated)

most of that candidate's votes moved to Thorpe by marked pref of voters; rest moved to exhausted votes or across party lines.


eventually at count 289 Thorpe achieved quota by transfer from outside Green party,  from SPP candidate (Sustainable Australia)


Where did Thorpe's surplus vote go to ?

being the last surviving Green party, Thorpe's surplus transfer had to cross party line or go to exhausted pile.

About half her surplus votes went to Labour (ALP) candidate (group K) or to Legalise Cannabis candidate (HMP group E). (but that might be more reflective of the votes that made up the last parcel she received than anything else.)


last Legalize Cannabis party candidate eventually eliminated in count 343. many votes went to a Liberal cand. and to Labour candidate Nunn 


Babet of United Australia eventually took last-place seat. after receiving many votes when last Liberal candidate eliminated.


Babet, being most-popular candidate when only two candidates left for last remaining seat (Babet and Nunn),  was declared elected on count 355 with 4/5ths of quota.


count 355 last remaining Liberal candidate eliminated. 

more votes went to Babet than to Nunn of Labour, so Babet was more popular at end to take last seat.

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Some votes never transferred

The 2000 votes initially placed on Nunn and the 152,000 votes initially placed on Babet never had chance to be transferred.


All winners were popular choice

all winners were most-popular on their party slate already in the first count.


Transfers and other STV mechanisms acted to keep out extreme/non-moderate candidates or ones with less general appeal


in the first count, Reason party candidate Vega had more votes than Mackenzie and Stewart but picked up few transfers.


in the first count, actor Richardson, a spokesman for white Australia and an anti-vaccinationist, had 12,000 votes but got few votes through transfers.


in the first count, Democrats candidate Green got 28,000 votes but picked up few votes through transfers


Sustainable Australia and Legalize Cannabis had fair number of votes, about 100,000, but did not pick up enough votes to get quota by the end. 


but as mentioned, vote transfers from them helped elect a United Australia candidate over a Labour candidate at the end.


without that, Labour would've had 3 seats out of six.


Labour's seats

on first count, Labor altogether got 1.2M votes so a bit more than two quotas. Its own votes came together behind 3 candidates, electing two. It came close to taking a third seat but did not get enough vote transfers from others to take a third seat.


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