OneGuyFromBarlick

Australia votes today...

There was a report on R4 this morning about it...... Vote early, vote often!

Voted early.
One vote per person, Stanley! Can't vote any more often than that!

I voted too. From joining the line to voting and coming out took about 10 minutes.
Very civilized. Wether the outcome will be is another matter.

Cathy wrote:I voted too. From joining the line to voting and coming out took about 10 minutes.

This is what you get with high turnouts brought about by compulsory voting, (bring it on here). I think we may have more polling stations per capita than you though. Biggest queue I have ever been in when voting is maybe a couple in front of me, suppose it depends when you go.

I would be interested to see what your turnout is.

At 08.30am this morning we had to wait about 20 mins in line outside the Town Hall. ( one of two polling booths in our seaside town). First time we had been inside our Town Hall, so we found it interesting...one of those buildings that looks quite interesting from the outside but is spartan and a real "plain Jane" inside.
I was very aware of people coughing around us and fingers crossed we didn't pick up any bugs while in line!

Marilyn wrote:At 08.30am this morning we had to wait about 20 mins in line outside the Town Hall.

Wow! I take it that the £10 or so fine that you would get for not voting is not the only reason you will queue for 20 minutes?

Our electorate in the main won't turn out if the sun isn't shining or when "Corrie" or "East Enders" is on.

Gosh...we all see it as our "duty" to vote. Honestly...! We all take it very seriously. If we had to line up for 2 hours we would. It is all very calm and civilised.
In the metropolitan area, many school halls become polling booths for the day. They put on sausage sizzles etc. nothing like that at the Town Hall.

Just laying in bed now watching results on TV actually. It's all very close and we may not get a result before I fall asleep.

How it should be Maz. In the main the Electoral Commission along with the Local Authorities have tried to get the polling stations out of schools so as not to disrupt the education system. I see that you are polling on Saturday which obviously makes a difference, it's normally Thursday over here. Cant see why we don't do it on a weekend, the football and other sports would probably be the excuse then though!

I have created this new thread with the post originally in the Referendum thread.

I voted at my local school. Sausage sizzle was $2.50 per serve just in case your interested... Haha.
The fine for not voting can be as high as $900.00, and jail-time applies if you vote twice, but I'm not sure how you could vote twice.

If your checking off system is the same as ours (crossing your name off the printed register), I suppose you could impersonate a different person, maybe in a different polling station, which is fraud.

I assume you will have proxy voting as well? In the UK you can nominate another individual to vote on your behalf but you need the paperwork to go with it. Postal votes also but those are issued ahead of the election to allow time for them to be returned for counting.

And surprise surprise its Sunday morning now and still no result. Massive swing against the sitting government and it now looks like another hung parliament. Apparently no more counting now until Tuesday, go figure. Still early polls and postal votes to count. Could be a while till we find out who we get next.

My vote early, vote often is a quotation from a famous Tammany Hall bent politician in America.....
The result is too close to call. Could be a while before things become clear. Big swing against the government.....

6.00pm news tells us that there are still 1 Million Postal Votes to be sorted so it's still 'swings and roundabouts'.
Ah!! The fun and games will continue for a bit longer

Can one of our down under friends post the results and turnout please after it's declared, I'm interested in the numbers.

We'll let you know Ian, if you want to check on specific things there's a lot of info on http://www.aec.gov.au Looks like it'll be another 2 weeks before we know the result and it's likely to be a hung parliament whoever claims victory.

It's compulsory to vote here and most people take the responsibility seriously. I don't know anyone who didn't, and there's a big fine if you don't.

Thanks Liz, the link is very interesting. I like your "backgrounder" term, says what's in the tin. 1911 for moves to compulsory voting, I always thought it was a lot later than that. Now in your psyche with a few generations not knowing any different. I wish we had it here. Interesting to see that one of the reasons to introduce it was to alleviate excessive party spending on elections. It works in a lot of ways for me. I don't think it's too much to ask any individual to make a decision every now and then.

I'm of the opinion that compulsory voting flies in the face of democracy, its one step away from them telling you who to vote for, which is one step away from autocracy. The turnout is a very good indication of the level of interest or apathy too.

I think everyone should have an obligation to vote but with our first past the post electoral system I would suggest an abstain box on the ballot.

It's not undemocratic its just encouraging people to actually make decisions on their own future from time to time.

Perhaps we should offers vouchers for free Starbucks coffee!

As you have probably read above Tiz they have food available for voters in Australia while they are queuing to cast their ballots. Seems like a very civilised system to me. Voting on a Saturday as well but as mentioned before, without compulsory voting our lot would just watch the football. We need to have a serious look at the engagement of people in the democratic process.

It's also compulsory voting in state & council elections. In Victoria, If you have more than one house ie one's a holiday house or rented out, you only have to vote in the council where you live, not both. If you're over 70 years old voting is not compulsory in council elections but it is in state and federal.

You're right Ian I've never known any different. You just factor voting into the day and get on with it.

Aus: The liberals have claimed victory in the lower house, at the moment I think they are one seat short of a majority. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the senate now. Malcolm Tunbull will need to do deals with independents to make sure there is no block to supply. It's taking forever to finish the counting. It's about time the electoral commission moved into this century & started to use technology instead of lots of people.

How do you feel about your new Prime Minister?

In position without any democratic vote either by party members or the general electorate of the U.K.