Jim,
The Queensland electoral act states that for a candidate to be declared
elected after preferences, they only require a majority of the votes with
continuing preferences remaining in the count. Candidates are validly
elected even if they do not have a majority of the formal vote. They only
need a majority of votes remaining in the count. There is no such thing as
a 'failed election'.
This has always been so in both New South Wales and Queensland since the
introduction of optional preferential voting.
What you are talking about with 'failed' elections exists in some parts of
the United States, and are generally followed by run-off elections between
leading candidates. Run-off elections were used briefly in NSW between 1910
and 1917, but to my knowledge, have never otherwise been used in Australia.
As I have explained to you in the past, the provision in the Commonwealth
Electoral Act which you claim can force a 'failed election' is not there
for the purpose you claim. This bears no relevance anyway to where optional
preferential voting is used.
Antony Green
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