When Western Australians take to the polls for the state election tomorrow, their ballots will look a little different.

An overhaul of the way votes are cast for the Legislative Council will be in effect, as the state government’s Electoral Equality Bill comes into play.

A single, whole-of-state electorate has been established under the new system, with its proponents touting it as a “one vote, one value” arrangement, in which every vote carries equal weight.

Voters will be given the option of selecting their preferences above the line for the first time, with the abolition of the group voting ticket which saw parties dictate voter preference flows.

Crucially, the changes also include a reduced electoral quota, or the percentage of votes a candidate needs to secure a seat.

Dropping to 2.63 per cent from 14.28 per cent, the change leaves minor parties with a greater chance of earning seats in the Legislative Council.

“Major parties, particularly the party in government will have to deal with them, and they’ll have to have a good, working relationship with them,” political analyst and former journalist Peter Kennedy says.

The new system replaces the six multi-member regions which comprised the Agricultural, Mining and Pastoral, and South West districts, as well as the South, North and East Metropolitan districts.

Voters in each district elected six representatives to the upper house, leaving regional Western Australians with the same number of members as those living in the city.

“That was a very generous way of treating the regions given the population spread, which is fairly thin in the regions,” Mr Kennedy says.

“But the thing that had going for it was that the regions produce the wealth that the rest of the state relies on,” he says.

“There was a view that they should be given, perhaps, more than one vote, one value.”

Opponents of the single state electorate have raised concerns that country voices could lose representation in the upper house over time, after the requirement for half of its members to be based in the regions was scrapped.

Mr Kennedy says the new system has placed the future regional representation into the hands of the parties.

“It’s up to the major parties now to ensure their tickets are balanced, and that they do include people from regional WA in winnable positions.”

While acknowledging the regional representation issue that accompanies the new electoral system, its supporters have argued the system is fairer as people’s first preference views will be better reflected in the results.

“More proportional representation is a good thing,” Daniel Minson, lead upper house candidate for the Sustainable Australia Party WA (SAPWA) says.

“In the [federal] lower house, over 30 percent of people vote outside the major parties, yet they are completely unrepresented.

“Having a more diverse upper house is critical to reflecting that,” he says.

With a likely increase in their upper house representation, minor parties in the cross bench could constitute a powerful final check on the passage of the next state government’s agenda.

This would be a stark contrast to the last four years of Labor dominance in both houses of parliament.

“Having a balanced cross bench and parties with the balance of power in the upper house is more typical of what you see historically in Australia,” Mr Minson says.

“Parties need to work collaboratively with each other and proactively, and there’s a lot of common ground to be worked with.

“That’s what you’ve got to do, you know, that’s what politics is: finding that common ground and being collaborative and trying to push forward,” he says.

Early voting began on Feb 28, and polling booths will open at 8am on election day.