MARK ALDRIDGE

A record 264 candidates stood in the 1999 election, spread across 80 groups on a ballot paper measuring one metre long.Group voting tickets, and an instruction to place just one number above the line, had been introduced toNSW upper house voting twelve years earlier.If voters numbered other squares above the line, these numbers were disregarded so there is no data to show how many people put more than one number above the line.After the 1999 election group voting tickets were abolished and NSW voters were instructed to continue to place a '1' above the line for their party or group of preference, or to vote for additional groups in order of their preference if they wished.This differs from the proposed changes to Senate voting in that if Senate electors choose to vote above the line, they will be instructed to put at least six numbers in order of preference above the line.The NSW change had an immediate effect.Although there were 284 candidates in the next election in 2003, only 15 groups nominated for above the line positions and seven candidates were ungrouped.Even though NSW voters could number more boxes to indicate their preferences if they wished, Senator Leyonhjelm claims that the change caused the majority of NSW voters to default to a "one above the line" choice.The chart below shows that from 2003 onwards, around 80 per cent of voters chose to number just one box above the line.EMBED: A breakdown of how electors decided to vote in NSW upper house elections since the reforms in that state were made.'Exhausted' votesSenator Leyonhjelm said the change to Senate voting would mean that the votes of people who voted for other than a major party were likely to be "exhausted"."There will be some people who will vote for a minor party and then a major party, but I guarantee the vast majority will not," he said.A ballot paper is said to be exhausted when it has no more preferences marked next to the candidates still in the count and it is then excluded from the count.The explanatory memorandum notes that the instruction on the ballot paper for voters to number at least six squares is to make sure their vote "has a reasonable life upon the distribution of preferences", even though the savings provision means their vote still counts if they decide to number just one box.The savings provision will not be mentioned in the instruction on the ballot paper.Rodney Smith from the department of government and international relations at the University of Sydney told Fact Check that in the case of the NSW upper house election, if an elector voted '1' above the line for a particular party, their vote can only go to that party's candidates and no others.Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.VIDEO: Watch John Barron present the facts. (ABC News)"So if that party doesn't get enough votes to fill a quota or to be one of the parties that is closest to a quota once the full quotas have been filled, then those votes will just be exhausted, they will effectively disappear," he said.However, he noted that above the line preferences had elected a minor party in the 2015 NSW election."The Animal Justice Party was elected on a primary vote that was not even half a quota but it benefited from preferences above the line from Green voters, largely," he said.After candidates are elected by quota or surplus votes, counting turns to distributing the preferences.Data from the 1999 NSW upper house election showed that only 3 per cent of distributed ballot papers had their preferences exhausted by the end of the count, meaning that preferences from nearly all votes were still flowing between groups because these were specified by the parties in their group voting tickets.In the 2003 election, the first after group voting tickets were abolished, 85 per cent of distributed ballot papers had their preferences exhausted by the end of the count.In his analysis of that election, ABC election analyst Antony Green noted that the new voting system clearly favoured parties with the highest remaining vote after the initial election of candidates with full quotas.He later said that similarly in the 2007, 2011 and 2015 NSW elections, "more than 80 per cent of ballot papers exhausted their preferences during the distribution of Legislative Council preferences".What the experts sayProfessor Smith told Fact Check that Senator Leyonhjelm was broadly correct in his claim about the effect of NSW reforms on voters defaulting to voting '1' above the line.He said under the NSW system and the proposed Senate changes, many electors votes would "exhaust" but both major and minor parties are affected."It's a little bit of a lottery as to who this is going to ultimately benefit but we know that it will not benefit small parties that are nowhere near the quota," he said.