Voting in Australia is compulsory, and while this may be considered a good thing, confusion sets in when voters cast their ballots, especially for immigrants voting for the first time.

A recent survey of first-generation Chinese and South Asian migrants found more than half the Chinese said the voting system can be daunting and confusing, while just under half the South Asian respondents said the same thing.

Australia's voting system is by proportional representation, where a candidate who gets 40 percent of the vote could still lose to one with 35 percent once preferences from other parties are distributed.

In some elections, ballot papers have had up to 100 candidates which need to be numbered in order of preference. For example, if a Labor candidate is number 20 on the ballot paper, the voter needs to put 1 in the candidate's box and fill the rest in order of preference. A missing number or a repeated number means the ballot is spoiled and not counted.

Fan Yang, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne's law school and one of those involved in the research, told China Daily the system can be confusing for migrants at first.

For several years, Fan, along with colleague Sukhmani Khorana from the University of New South Wales, has been looking into Australia's voting system and how it impacts migrants.

Their latest survey was conducted on first-generation Chinese and South Asian migrants. About half of those polled said they lacked political literacy and were thus unable to make an informed choice.

"This gap in understanding among newer migrant communities has allowed for the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation," Khorana, an expert on migrant and refugee communities, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Aug 6.