People commonly have minimal understanding of how preferential voting works. It is always within control of the voter, but many are lazy and gullible and don't even try to understand.
However if people are going to comment on HC it's better to be accurate.
Preference negotiations are conducted over a long period of time before each election, but necessarily are concluded late in the day, with limited number of people involved in any party. The time interval between freeze of nominations, the ballot order draw and start of Early Voting period makes it a scramble which unless you have been part of as part of a party (I have) it's most unlikely anyone will understand it.
But that doesn't stop pundits doing what they are paid to do. Ie Sound authoritative on any given topic.
