When to vote!

The whimsical comment...vote early and vote often...amuses us all. (It begs the question about whether or not there are adequate identity checks at the polling places....I note we haven't been given little identification cards this time). [A person I used to be related to is not in the country and suggested to someone else that they might vote on their behalf!!!]

Last time I voted at 30 second past 8...and spent the rest of the day anxiously waiting that happy time when (like the true tragic I am) I could be bored for several hours on end (it only seemed to take abut 30-45 minutes in the event).

So today, I am going to spread it out a bit...and perhaps vote at 10. Or if I am really risqué perhaps I'll wait until 3!!!

Oh dear...I need to get a life!

Done and dusted

There is any number of comments that could be made about the recent State election I'll try and up-date some of these ad hoc remarks as the day goes on.

1. The age old dilemma about the "dodgy how to vote cards", in which Labor sympathisers obviously tried to make themselves look like Family First members, handing out cards that would give Labor a preference rather than Liberal, raises the question about the difference between legal, moral and ethical (Ethics 101). Something which may be legal is not necessarily moral.

2. The Labor campaign manager says "These questions are best left to philosophers". I want to suggest that this is equivocation of the worst kind, the 'lectorate despises this sort of casuistry and the Labor party should sack campaign managers who do not think they should act morally as well as legally.

3. Good on Premier Mike Rann for condemning this out of hand. Well done Chloe Fox for not adopting this strategy. Boo to Leon Bignell, whose victory has been tarnished even if it cannot be proved that this actually delivered the victory to him.

4. On the other hand. Let us not so be so ingenuous as to suggest that voters slavishly follow how to vote cards, and even if they do then more fool them.

We should all take responsibility for how we vote and not blame cards which short-circuit our brains.

The Legislative Council

Don't even get me started on the Legislative Council! The whole process of 'voting above the line' is in my mind an affront to our democratic rights. It suits the two major parties who want to get rid of as many independents and smaller parties as they can. Anything which impedes their open slather is a bad thing in their eyes. By voting above the line you are ceding your right to choose for yourself to these party machines.

I shall expound more about this tomorrow

To all those who don't know who to vote for

I never tire of telling those who want to abolish compulsory voting, that we don't actually have compulsory voting in SA.

We have compulsory getting our name ticked off...what we do from that point on is up to us.

I also have a lot of sympathy with those who don't want to preference every candidate.

Why should I say for example that I prefer the Shooters Party more than One Nation. In reality I don't prefer either of them!

But, as I say what you choose to do once you've got your name ticked off is up to you!

Parliamentary Reform

I agree with Business SA (The Advertiser 11 January) that we need serious parliamentary reform in South Australia. But I don't quite understand how the abolition of compulsory voting would add to this, unless we want to encourage people not to take an interest in how we are governed or what our elected representatives get up to, which seems the very opposite of what is being proposed by the business lobby.

It is trite to say, as Peter Vaughan apparently does, that 'democracy' requires the abolition of compulsory voting. Democracy requires responsibility, and the key responsibility for the elector is to vote.

In the end we are not required to vote for any one particular person or party in Australia, we may choose to exercise our democratic responsibility and vote informal. But it is to our credit as a nation and as a state that all adults are permitted to vote and are required to act responsibly by so doing.

Pride in voting

I must admit that one of the proudest days of my life was the last Federal Election, when Sue & I stood in line at the Port Elliott Memorial Hall with our two eldest daughters waiting to cast our lot. For S, the younger of the two, it was the first time that she had voted and she was visibly excited (isn't she always?). We had spent some time in the weeks leading up to the election discussing various issues and who one might vote for. I have no way of knowing who they did actually vote for, though I suspect they voted the right way!!
And here we are on the eve of the next election. There is already increasing foment in the community about not just which candidates/parties to vote for but the process of voting itself.
Compulsory voting - a misconception
It has always seemed to me a good and democratic thing that the right to vote is something that is required of everyone in Australia. And, although in some other democratic countries (the US and the UK for example) voluntary voting is the order of the day; a sound case, I suggest, can be made that it is a democratic citizen's responsibility to exercise the right to vote.
To this, some would say, choosing not to vote is also a choice and should be permitted. I agree with this, and we have that option.
In fact the misconception is that you do have to vote. That is not so. You only have to have your name ticked off. You are not compelled to write anything on the ballot paper...we actually have compulsory name ticking off not compulsory voting.
It is not unreasonable to suggest that in a democracy citizens actually have responsibilities, and a (if not the) key responsibility is to deliberate and vote (indeed democracy cannot work without that process).
So why does the Liberal party in particular seem to promote voluntary voting?
Why are we having a discussion about whether or not certain people in jail should be denied their right to vote?
Why do we have draconian regulations being suggested that would close the voting rolls on the day an election is announced....regulations which would effectively disenfranchise those who, perhaps given a fortnight or two, would do what they ought to have done more prudently weeks or months before? Recent figures suggest that 400,000 voters enrolled or amended their enrolments in the couple of weeks after the writs for the last election were issued...this would not be possible under the new regulations unless that were all done by 8 p.m. on the actual day the writs were issued.

On the grand scale of things one person not being able to vote here or there probably doesn't make all that much difference. But it is, I would suggest, incumbent upon our society..if we want to be hailed as democratic... appropriate that we encourage people to vote, not discourage them. That we promote the notion that you should engage with the process, even if you decide not to vote, but we should not just allow our fellow citizens to languish out of apathy or cynicism. And we should protect the rights, in particular, of those who are most likely to be easily disenfranchised.
While one or two votes may not actually make any difference, the fact that we deliberately disregard anyone's rights does affect the sort of society we actually live in.