The 1910 New South Wales state election was held on 14 October 1910 for all of the 90 seats in the 22nd New South Wales Legislative Assembly and it was conducted in single-member constituencies with a second ballot if a majority was not achieved on the first. Both adult males and females were entitled to vote, but not Indigenous people. The 21st parliament of New South Wales was dissolved on 14 September 1910 by the Governor, Lord Chelmsford, on the advice of the PremierCharles Wade.[1][2][3]
This was the first NSW election using a second ballot system. All previous elections had used a first past the post voting system, where a candidate might be elected with less than 50% of the vote especially where two or more similar candidates split the vote.[a] There were 3 districts that required a second ballot, at Durham and St Leonards where the second round ballot was won by the leading candidate and at Hastings and Macleay where support from the Labour Party saw the independent overtake the sitting Liberal Reform member to take the seat.
The election saw the Labor Electoral League form government for the first time, winning 46 of the 90 seats in the Assembly.
Key dates
Date
Event
14 September 1910
The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.[1]
23 September 1910
Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
^For example Leichhardt at the 1907 election where the Liberal vote was split between the endorsed candidate and an independent Liberal, with Labor taking the seat with 44.2% of the vote.
^ abSwing is calculated using the Butler method, being the average of the change in votes of the successful party in 1907 and the successful party in 1910. Where both parties did not contest both elections, the swing is N/A
^ abcdMargin is calculated as the difference in vote percentage between the successful party and the second party.
^Edward O'Sullivan had won Belmore at the 1907 election as a Former Progressive, however he joined the Labor Party in 1909 and died in April 1910. The by-election in May 1910 was won by Patrick Minahan (Labor) who retained the seat at the 1910 general election.