It's not really a labyrinth, and in this case it sounds like someone's subverted the democratic process, ie. they voted one way, but whoever sent the preference

It's not really a labyrinth, and in this case it sounds like someone's subverted the democratic process, ie. they voted one way, but whoever sent the preferences to the Electoral Commission switched them over. As far as the Australian preference system goes, you have a choice when voting in the lower house: You can pick one box above the line, in which case your preferences will get distributed by the party that you voted for, or you can vote "below the line", in which case you get to vote however you like. It seems odd to me too - I put it down to Australian laziness, ie. why number 60-odd boxes when you could back to the BBQ sucking back a few cold ones? :)