The cards essentially play on voter ignorance and apathy. It should be fairly obvious how to vote for your preferred candidate. Vote 1. Yet the how-to-vote card implies that in order to vote for a candidate correctly it is a necessity that the preference allocation is followed number by number. Worryingly, many voters are unaware that they can distribute preferences in any direction they like.

Due to this, arrivals at the polling booth are pawns in a game decided through preference whisperers and backroom deals. Voters who follow the card are not thinking about their reasons for ordering candidates on the ballot but are willingly deferring that right to parties intent on manipulating them to shore up power.

We can also thank how-to-vote cards and preference deals for the unwelcome presence of politicians who few people actually vote for. Fraser Anning, anyone? If more people were encouraged to understand the benefit of casting their own preferences and voting below the line in the Senate, we would avoid the fringe dwellers.

There is no practical need for how-to-vote cards anymore since, unlike in the early 20th century, the affiliation of any candidate is now written on the ballot paper. All the voter needs to do is look carefully. Some might say this will lead to individuals unwittingly selecting the candidate they did not intend but isn’t a different form of this already occurring anyway?

There is also a case to be made that as citizens it is our responsibility to exercise a degree of thought, consideration and intellectual caution before we number each box. A stronger democracy is one that respects the intelligence of voters, rather than one that manipulates their ignorance or apathy.