Групповые избирательные бюллетени: практика и отмена в Австралии и других странах.

A group voting ticket (GVT) is a shortcut for voters in a preferential voting system, where a voter can indicate support for a list of candidates instead of marking preferences for individual candidates. For multi member electoral divisions with single transferable voting, a group or party registers a GVT before an election with the electoral commission. When a voter selects a group or party above the line on a ballot paper, their vote is distributed according to the registered GVT for that group. In Australia it is known as group ticket vote or ticket voting. As of 2022, group voting tickets are used for elections in only one jurisdiction in the country: the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house of the legislature in the Australian state of Victoria. In South Australia House of Assembly elections, parties can submit preference tickets which are used to save a vote that would otherwise be informal. GVTs have been abolished by New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. They were used in the Australian Senate from the 1984 federal election until the 2013 federal election. Tasmania has never used ticket voting. A form of GVT is used for some elections in Fiji. The introduction of GVTs in Australia led to the proliferation of microparties and the creation of preference deals between them, enabling one or more candidates within the network of parties to receive sufficient preferences to achieve the quota for election, especially in multi member electoral divisions. Such preference deals were first arranged for the 1999 NSW election, where three members of the Minor Party Alliance were elected.

Every Australian jurisdiction that has introduced GVTs has ballot papers with two sections separated by a line. Voters may choose to vote either above the line or below the line. By voting below the line voters can rank candidates individually by numbering boxes. Voters can choose to vote for a group ticket by placing the number '1' in one of the ticket boxes above the line. The single number '1' selects a GVT from one group or party, and all preferences are then distributed according to the GVT. This leads to pre election trading between parties on how each group will allocate later preferences to other groups and candidates. About 95% of voters vote above the line. In elections where GVTs have been abolished (for the Australian Senate, the New South Wales Legislative Council, the South Australian Legislative Council and the Western Australian Legislative Council), voters can express an order of preferences for parties by voting '1', '2' and so on in different boxes above the line. The scope of a number above the line is merely the list of candidates for that party, so Group Voting Tickets are no longer used in those elections. The party supplies a list of its candidates to the Australian Electoral Commission, New South Wales Electoral Commission, Electoral Commission of South Australia or Western Australian Electoral Commission before the election. All four jurisdictions have limited optional preferential voting, which enables voters to number as many boxes as they choose, but the number only applies to the registered party list.

Group voting tickets voting has been criticised because electors usually do not know, and it is difficult to find out, where their preferences are being directed. All details are published in advance, both electronically and in a free booklet published by the Australian Electoral Commission or the appropriate State electoral commission. The booklets may be viewed at polling booths on request to the poll officials. However, such is the complexity of the information that it is unlikely that the average voter could easily determine the fate of their vote's preferences, particularly as some parties submit multiple allocations (e. g., 33% to one party, 66% to another, and so on), and the effects are integrally wound up in preference deals between other parties. Using GVTs, the potential for tactical voting by parties is greatly increased. Because voters are not usually aware of how a party's preferences are directed, GVTs have allowed minor parties with low support to be elected almost exclusively on the preferences of other parties, for example, where small parties with very different views have agreed to exchange preferences, or where larger parties have sought to minimise votes for opponents with similar views. A notable case was the 1999 New South Wales state election when the Outdoor Recreation Party's Malcolm Jones was elected to the Legislative Council with a primary vote of 0.19%, or 0.042 of a quota. GVTs came under scrutiny at the 2013 Australian election for multiple candidates getting provisionally elected with the vast majority of the 14.3% quota being filled from preferences, with "preference whisperer" Glenn Druery's Minor Party Alliance organising tight cross preferencing between minor parties. Ricky Muir from the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party won a senate seat on a record low primary vote of 0.5% in Victoria (previous record held by Family First's Steve Fielding in 2004 on 1.9% in Victoria). The Sports Party's Wayne Dropulich was on track for a period of time to win a Senate seat from 0.2% in Western Australia, coming 21st out of 28 groups. Family First's Bob Day won a seat on a primary vote of 3.8% in South Australia, and the DLP's John Madigan won his seat in 2010 on a primary vote of 2.3% in Victoria. Senator Nick Xenophon and larger parties including the government proposed changes to the GVT system. Following the 2018 Victorian state election, the Victorian Greens demanded that Victoria discontinue using group voting, describing it as "corrupt" and "undemocratic", following the election of Sustainable Australia candidate Clifford Hayes to the legislative council on 1.2% of the primary vote. In the 2021 Western Australian state election, GVTs once again came under scrutiny after the Daylight Saving Party was elected to the Legislative Council with just 98 votes, or 0.2% of the electorate; the electorate had notably voted strongly against adopting a daylight saving system in prior referendums. Additionally, the Legalise Cannabis WA party won a seat on the council with only 2% of the vote; the No Mandatory Vaccination Party almost won a seat through votes given by other smaller parties through GVTs (despite none of these parties individually earning more than 1.9% of the vote), however, were defeated due to the Liberals preferencing the Greens above any of the smaller parties therefore allowing the latter to win. This led to the state government to quickly pass legislation which abolished GVTs in November of that same year. It is illegal for parties to promote "Just Vote 1" or the like the measure is only intended to avoid an informal vote where the voter's intention is clear.