Living in interesting times

South Australians have been interested in electoral matters for a long time. South Australia introduced the secret baUot in 1856 - a month after Victoria and only the second colony to do so. By the time that the various colonies voted to federate in 1899 and 1900, women in South Australia as well as in New Zealand and Western Australia could have their own votes recorded. More recently, after the South Australian State election of 1989, in which the Liberal Party received 52% of the two party preferred vote but failed to win a majority of the seats, the Constitution Act was changed to require a review of the electoral boundaries after each State election, and - perhaps more importantly - the changes required the South Australian Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission to take votes into account when making any boundary changes. [Introduction]