The most important feature of the system is that, although each voter has only one vote, their single vote may be apportioned and used to elect multiple candidates based on the voter's ranked preferences (if any). To this end, the voter is invited to rank-order candidates, although they are not required to do so. The candidates will be grouped by political party in separate columns on the ballot paper, as is the practice in the Australian state of Tasmania. However, voters would be allowed to express preferences for candidates of different parties if they chose to do so.