| Election Name: | 1904 Victorian state election |
| Country: | Victoria |
| Flag Year: | 1901 |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1902 Victorian state election |
| Previous Year: | 1902 |
| Next Election: | 1907 Victorian state election |
| Next Year: | 1907 |
| Seats For Election: | All 67 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly 34 seats needed for a majority |
| Leader1: | Thomas Bent |
| Leader Since1: | 1904 |
| Color1: | 9966CC |
| Party1: | National Citizens Reform League |
| Leaders Seat1: | Brighton |
| Percentage1: | 36.14 |
| Swing1: | 5.93% |
| Last Election1: | 47 seats |
| Seats1: | 35 seats |
| Seat Change1: | 12 |
| Leader2: | Frederick Bromley |
| Leader Since2: | 1904 |
| Party2: | Labour |
| Leaders Seat2: | Carlton |
| Colour2: | DC241F |
| Percentage2: | 32.55 |
| Swing2: | 14.54% |
| Last Election2: | 12 seats |
| Seats2: | 17 seats |
| Seat Change2: | 5 |
| Premier | |
| Before Election: | Thomas Bent |
| Before Party: | National Citizens Reform League |
| After Election: | Thomas Bent |
| After Party: | National Citizens Reform League |
The 1904 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on 1 June 1904 to elect 67 members to the state's Legislative Assembly.[1]
It was the first election to be held in Victoria since the passing of the Constitution Act 1903[2] (also known as the "Constitution Reform Act"), which reduced the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly from 95 to 67 and removed all two-member electorates. It also created three new electorates representing public and railways officers: the Electoral province for Public Officers and Railway Officers the "Electoral district for Public Officers" and a two-member "Electoral district for Railway Officers". Members of the public service had previously not been eligible to stand as candidates without first resigning. Under these changes, they could stand while a state employee, and if successful in winning a seat, would have a leave of absence while sitting as an MP.
Ministerialists were a group of members of parliament who supported a government in office but were not bound by tight party discipline. Ministerialists represented loose pre-party groupings who held seats in state parliaments up to 1914. Such members ran for office as independents or under a variety of political labels but saw themselves as linked to other candidates by their support for a particular premier or government.
Thomas Bent was elected on 16 February 1904 leader of the Commonwealth Liberal Party, replacing Premier William Irvine who went into federal politics, and went into the election as the incumbent Premier. At the June 1904 election Bent won a comfortable majority with 35 of the 67 seats, and the Labour Party became the second largest party in the Assembly with 17 seats.
| Votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reform League Ministerialists | 55,426 | 36.14 | −5.93 | 35 | 12 | |||
| Labour | 49,922 | 36.14 | +14.54 | 17 | 5 | |||
| Liberal Oppositionists | 37,422 | 24.40 | +6.31 | 12 | 3 | |||
| Independent Ministerialists | 7,554 | 4.93 | −8.52 | 2 | 5 | |||
| Independent Labour | 2,108 | 1.37 | −0.50 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Independent | 945 | 0.62 | +0.62 | 0 | ||||
| Formal votes | 153,377 | 99.03 | −0.62 | |||||
| Informal votes | 1,498 | 0.97 | +0.62 | |||||
| Total | 154,875 | 67 | ||||||
| Registered voters / turnout | 277,006 | 63.38 | −2.03 | |||||