On Tue, 03 May 2011 21:08:08 +0100 John Williamson wrote :
In either case, the overall result is determined by the marginal
constituencies, so why change things? Australia uses AV, but everyone
*must* vote, and voters *must* rank all candidates or their vote is
wasted.

This apparently (I was corrected in another place) is true for federal
(national) elections here and in several states (mine, Victoria,
included) but in Queensland and New South Wales you can preference as
many or as few as you choose as is proposed in the UK, though of course
we have compulsory voting.

The more general practice is to take the option of voting 'above the
line' - above the list of candidates, there are boxes for each party,
and by checking the one box you are signing up for that party's decided
preferences in your seat [which may not be the same as elsewhere].

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on' Melbourne, Australia
www.superbeam.co.uk www.eurobeam.co.uk www.greentram.com