IRV Results: 
1996 Elections to the Australian House of Representatives

The Australian House of Representatives is elected using instant runoff voting from 148 single-member districts.

  • The candidate with the most first choices won 95% of the races.
  • The candidate with the second most first choices won 5% of the races. 
  • No candidate finishing third or lower won a race.

Here are some facts about the 1996 elections, gleaned from the data available at http://www.aec.gov.au/results/1996/data/scrutiny/main.htm

Did IRV make a difference?

Number or races (%) Who won

85 (57.4%)

The winner received a majority of first choices.

56 (37.8%)

The winner received a plurality of first choices.

141 (95.3%)

The IRV result was the same as the plurality result.

 

 

7  (4.7%)

The winner came in second by first choices.

0  (0.0%)

The winner came in third or lower by first choices.

7  (4.7%)

The IRV result was different from the plurality result.

Gender effects

Male winners

Number or races (%) Who won

 116 (78.4%)

Male winner received a majority or plurality of first choices.

   4  (2.7%)

Male second-place finisher beat male first-place finisher.

   2  (1.3%)

Male second-place finisher beat female first-place finisher.

122 (82.4%)

Total male winners

Female winners

Number or races (%) Who won

  25 (16.9%)

Female winner received a majority or plurality of first choices.

   0  (0.0%)

Female second-place finisher beat female first-place finisher.

   1  (0.7%)

Female second-place finisher beat male first-place finisher.

  26 (17.6%)

Total female winners

Distribution of number of candidates per race

Number of Candidates

Number of Races

1

0

2

0

3

3

4

21

5

38

6

31

7

23

8

14

9

9

10

9

The average is 6.2, the mode is 5, and the median is 6.