May the best bird win: how the 2019 voting system has changed

This year's Australian bird of the year poll is going to a runoff. What does that mean for your favourite?

" Cast your vote in bird of the year 2019 here

In the 2002 French presidential election, voters on the left were lumped with an unpalatable choice: vote for their longtime conservative enemy, Jacques Chirac, or abstain but risk handing the election to the far-right candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Progressive voters did their duty and reluctantly lined up at ballot boxes to cast their vote for Chirac, who was re-elected with a record 82% of the vote.

This turn of events doesn't on face value seem an endorsement of the runoff system, especially when Le Pen had just 17% of the primary vote and Chirac just 20% in the first round. Together the pair had less than 50% of the vote.