TASMANIAN HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS - DENISON 1976
 
FIG. 5.  EXAMPLE OF A PARTY WITH FEWER VOTES WINNING MORE SEATS  
BECAUSE ITS VOTE WAS MORE EVENLY SPREAD THAN ITS RIVAL.
 
THE VOTES FOR THE RESPECTIVE CANDIDATES AT THE END OF THE SCRUTINY WERE AS FOLLOWS:
GROUP A  
LIB.  
GROUP TOTAL 22,716		 GROUP C  
ALP  
GROUP TOTAL 22,804
Quota = 5,854
CANDIDATES:- 
LIB. 1 - BINGHAM 
        2 - ROBINSON 
        3 - MATHER 
       4 - BAKER  
ALP 1 - BATT 
         2 - GASCOIGNE 
         3 - AMOS  
         4 - GREEN
THE ALP WAS DISADVANTAGED BECAUSE ITS VOTE WAS MORE CONCENTRATED THAN THE LIBERALS! THOUGH PARTY TOTALS WERE ONLY MARGINALLY DIFFERENT, A SLIGHTLY GREATER CONCENTRATION IN THE ALP VOTE WAS ENOUGH FOR IT NOT TO WIN THE SEVENTH SEAT. WITH SENTATE-TYPE TICKETS, THE CONCENTRATION OF VOTES BY THE PARTY USING THEM WOULD BE MASSIVE, IN COMPARISON WITH THIS, AND WOULD BE A REGULAR, INEVITABLE OCCURRENCE, NOT AN EXCEPTIONAL INCIDENT, AS IN THIS EXAMPLE. (SEE TEXT FOR FURTHER EXPLANATION.)
Report to Tasmanian Parliament by
Dr George Howatt,
Hobart, 1979
 
This Figure 4-A was digitized by the Proportional Representation Society of Australia in 2003, from Dr Howatt's Report, from a copy kindly obtained from the Library of the Parliament of Tasmania by Hon. Neil Robson.