Below the line ballot paper tool for your Australian senate vote

Are you eligible to vote in this year’s Australian federal senate election? Thinking of giving preferences to all of the senate candidates in your state or territory, but worried about stuffing it up and rendering your vote informal? That was me in 2007. After carefully working out my preferences and writing them down on paper to bring with me to the polling booth, I realised afterwards that I had assigned two candidates the same number! Of course, with 68 candidates in Victoria for the six senate positions, it was bound to happen.

The tool on this site lets you prepare your below the line senate vote ahead of the big day, reordering candidates individually or by group. Once you’re happy with it, you can print it out in a form that’s easy to transcribe on to the real ballot paper on polling day.

★ Latest news: June 10: senate.io not available for 2016