1974 Australian referendum (Democratic Elections)

Australian Democratic Elections referendum, 1974

18 May 1974 (1974-05-18)
An Act to alter the Constitution so as to ensure that the members of the House of Representatives and of the parliaments of the states are chosen directly and democratically by the people. Do you approve the proposed law?
Results
Choice Votes % Yes 3,439,471 47.20% No 3,846,869 52.80% Valid votes 7,286,340 98.32% Invalid or blank votes 124,171 1.68% Total votes 7,410,511 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 7,759,714 95.5%

The Constitution Alteration (Democratic Elections) Bill 1974^[1] was an unsuccessful proposal to alter the Australian Constitution to make population instead of electors, the basis of determining the average size of electorates in each state.^[2] It applied not only to the House of Representatives, but also to the various state Legislative Assemblies, requiring the use demographical population size to ensure democratic elections. This was intended to replace alternative methods of distributing seats, such as geographical size, with instead the population of states and territories. It was put to voters for approval in a referendum held on 18 May 1974.