Commonwealth Parliament, Senate election
Election of 13 December 1919
Government in office at Senate election
Senate enrolment and voting
Electoral composition of the Senate for this election
Senate votes and seats won, and seats held, national summary
Election held on 13 December 1919
Criteria for the inclusion of parties in this table are set out in the Glossary under 'listed party'
| Party Name | First preference vote n | First preference vote share % | Change from previous election % | Seats won by ticket n | Seats won by ticket % | Seats won by party n | Seats won by party % | Seats held by party n | Seats held by party % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationalist Party (Nationalists) | 861,990 | 46.39 | -8.98 | 18 | 94.74 | 18 | 94.74 | 35 | 97.22 |
| Australian Labor Party | 795,858 | 42.83 | -0.89 | 1 | 5.26 | 1 | 5.26 | 1 | 2.78 |
| Country Party | 163,293 | 8.79 | * | 0 | |||||
| Independents | 26,374 | 1.42 | +1.03 | 0 | |||||
| Socialist Party (NSW) | 10,508 | 0.57 | +0.05 | 0 | |||||
| Votes for other than listed parties | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||||||
| Totals | 1,858,023 | 100.00 | 19 | 100.00 | 19 | 100.00 | 36 | 100.00 |
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* Party did not contest previous election or did not meet criteria for listing, or contested previous election under a different party name.
Notes
This election in 1919 was a regular election for half the members of the Senate held at the same time as a general election for the House of Representatives; see terms of senators. The 1919 House of Representatives results can be seen here.
An additional senator had to be elected for Tasmania to fill a casual vacancy; note Narelle Miragliotta & Campbell Sharman, 'Managing Midterm Vacancies: Institutional Design and Partisan Strategy in the Australian Parliament 1901–2013', Australian Journal of Political Science, 52(3) 2017: 351-366.
In the table above, see the Glossary distinctions between Seats won by ticket and Seats won by party, and between Seats won by party and Seats held by party.
Electoral system: The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (No.27 of 1918) had changed the electoral system for the House of Representatives to provide for preferental voting (the alternative vote) in single member districts, with the voter required to rank all candidates on the ballot paper (compulsory preferences).
A similar preferental voting system was applied to the Senate for this election in 1919 under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1919 (No.31 of 1919) with each state being a multimember district. Section 7 provided that, for a valid ballot paper, voters had to rank at least one more than twice as many candidates as there were vacancies to be filled, and could rank more if they wished. This was a form of optional preferential voting; for the half-Senate election of 1919, it meant each voter had to rank at least 7 candidates (9 for Tasmanian voters).
Ballot design: The design of the Senate ballot paper for the election of senators from each state was set out in Form E of the 1919 Electoral Act (Section 11). As with the previous electoral system, candidates were ranked in a single list in alphabetical order of surname; no party affiliation or additional information about candidates was provided unless there were two candidates with the same name and then a geographical location was provided to distinguish them.
Country Party: The perceived urban bias of the existing federal parties reinforced the belief of some rural groups that neither the Labor Party nor the Nationalists represented the interests of many non-metropolitan voters. This movement led to the creation of the Country Party; the prospect of third party competition at federal elections had prompted the adoption of preferental voting systems for the House of Representatives and the Senate (see preceding note).
In the national summary for this Senate election in 1919, the votes assigned to the Country Party are comprised of votes for the Country Party in Western Australia, votes for Farmers and Settlers Party in New South Wales, and votes for the Victorian Farmers Union in Victoria.
References: For the emergence of the Country Party, see B D Graham, The Formation of the Australian Country Parties, (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1966), available for download here.
For general Senate reference, see: J.R. Odgers, Australian Senate Practice, 5th edition (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1976); a more recent version is online here [accessed 20 May 2020]; and note Stanley Bach, Platypus and Parliament: The Australian Senate in Theory and Practice (Canberra: Department of the Senate, 2003), online here [accessed 21 May 2020].
Sources
Colin A Hughes and B D Graham, A Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1890-1964, (Canberra; Australian National University Press, 1968 SBN 708112700); Commonwealth Parliament, Department of the Senate.