Hare-Clark electoral system

Hare-Clark is a type of single transferable vote electoral system of proportional representation used for elections in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. The method for the distribution of preferences is similar to other voting systems in Australia, such as for the Australian Senate, however, the Hare-Clark method gives precedence to individual candidates. Voters are not given the option to vote for parties 'above the line', but instead must number individual candidates in order of preference.

The name is derived from English barrister, Thomas Hare, and the Tasmanian Attorney General, Andrew Inglis Clark, who first introduced the modified counting system to Tasmania in 1896.

Thomas Hare (1806–91) is generally credited with the conception of the single transferable vote, while Andrew Inglis Clark (1848-1907) introduced the system to Tasmania with a modified counting method. "The specific modification introduced by Mr A I Clark, Attorney-General for Tasmania, is the provision devised by him for eliminating the element of chance in the selection and distribution of quota-excesses or surplus transfer votes." The provision described as "Clark's own" was to transfer all votes to 'next order of preference', rather than a random sample.

In 1896, after several failed attempts, Clark was able to get a system of proportional representation adopted by the Tasmanian Parliament, but it was to be only on a trial basis for both Hobart (to elect 6 MPs) and Launceston (to elect 4 MPs). This first 'Hare-Clark system', as it was immediately known, was renewed annually until suspended in 1902. Clark, never in robust health, died at his home 'Rosebank' in Battery Point on 14 November 1907, just as permanent proportional representation struggled through Parliament and over a year before it was used for the first time throughout Tasmania at the general election in April 1909.

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