Comment on The battle for Fremantle by Antony Green

Absolutely not Razor. They did try that in WA as I explain here http://blogs.abc.net.au/antonygreen/2008/07/ticket-voting-f.html
The simple answer is optional preferential voting. No doubt lower house ticket voting would be justified on the basis of cutting informal votes, but its real purpose would be to allow parties to get control of preferences and direct them as they wish, ignoring the will of voters.
George Speights coup in Fiji in 2000 was indirectly caused by the operation of ticket voting, where the election of an ethnic Fijian Indian government had come about by the operation of centrally arranged preference deals at odds with the first preference votes cast by voters.
And why should you be surprised that people cant follow instructions? Why do you think Labors how to vote in Fremantle tries to run straight lines of preferences? Why did the Greens run their ticket straight down the ballot paper in the Mayo by-election which put One Nation ahead of the Liberals? The answer is you get less transcription errors by voters from simple how-to-vote numbering sequences. Also, ask a shop owner how many goods are returned by purchasers who tried to operate them without first reading the instructions.
Some people think they are being funny numbering a ballot paper 1,2,3,99,100. The intent is clear. In WA it would count. Federally it would be informal, something I think is stupid.