Election today - Don't forget to vote

**cs123** · 07-09-2013, 07:23 AM

Hopefully you don't think of elections as too much of a burden. A lot of people on this planet do not get the opportunity to participate in a democracy like we do, so take advantage of it and have your say!

**Burnout** · 07-09-2013, 07:26 AM

Wha,....Who?........ Where.......... Why???

Archilino · 07-09-2013, 07:59 AM

Going now, only reason we go early is so I can get a kransky at the sausage sizzle before they run out

mcflux · 07-09-2013, 08:47 AM

I woke up this morning with an election

**DJM83** · 07-09-2013, 08:48 AM

Dont have to vote, not that it bothered me when i had to.

**DJR-351** · 07-09-2013, 09:08 AM

Did it nearly 2 weeks ago......

TC200six · 07-09-2013, 11:10 AM

With the extra polling booth in my area this fed election, the lines are not as long, which is good to see. It could also be because a lot of people have voted early this time.

Back in 2010, I went to vote at my nearest school and the line was right down the street.

wodahs · 07-09-2013, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJR-351

Did it nearly 2 weeks ago......

same here

FPV8U · 07-09-2013, 01:08 PM

Did it earlier this week, although with all this talk of sausage sizzles i think i short changed myself.

kaniSS · 07-09-2013, 01:22 PM

I voted to avoid a fine.

Dash_XR · 07-09-2013, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaniSS

I voted to avoid a fine.

I thought we lived in a free country? That doesn't sound very free to me lol

revcore · 07-09-2013, 01:26 PM

Went and voted early this morning to get it out of the way. Funny thing happened when I got to the voting place...The goons were out there handing out their usual crap as they do on election day. Anyway, The liberals and the nationals shove their papers in my face and I say "Not interested in yours I'm only after a labor one" Then the liberal bloke said "Go on then waste your vote".
WTF??? Talk about being a knob head!

davenl5l · 07-09-2013, 02:18 PM

unreal isn't it they say if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. well we used to pay peanuts and we got nation building polly's. now we pay outrageous money and the useless p#@k's need a committee and advisers just to peel a banana!!!

tranquilized · 07-09-2013, 02:42 PM

Its a depressing day.

Just hoping some independents and minor parties have some success to keep the policies closer to the political centre rather than the extreme right.

Fireblade · 07-09-2013, 03:08 PM

Voted for Nick Fury because Australia needs more Avengers

**EASYBOSS** · 07-09-2013, 03:49 PM

At least voting is not compulsory in NZ, your poor buggers having to do it or be faced with being fined, but I do have to say, if you don't vote, don't complain!!!!

Feathers · 07-09-2013, 04:02 PM

I'm waiting as long as I can, to avoid the morons at the gate.

ratter · 07-09-2013, 04:10 PM

Voting is a pain in the *** to go and do and most the time we have no faith in those running, but to avoid voting or do a donkey vote and then whinge about they way the country is run is just pathetic, we all get a say in how it's run so use it

Dash_XR · 07-09-2013, 04:36 PM

I agree but if you truly believe both sides will run the country just as bad as each other then whether you vote or not you'll still be complaining. Complaining about the parties is pointless when the system itself is what's broken.

karj · 07-09-2013, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dash_XR

I agree but if you truly believe both sides will run the country just as bad as each other then whether you vote or not you'll still be complaining. Complaining about the parties is pointless when the system itself is what's broken.

I hear people complain about the "broken system" all the time. But exactly what part of the system is broken? 95% of people don't control their own preferences and just vote above the line on the senate ballot paper and blindly follow the "how to vote" cards handed out by parties on the day. Then people complain when elections are determined by dodgy preference deals! People complain about the 2-party system, and then we get a hung parliament with the major parties needing to negotiate with minors and independents and people complain about that instead!

So what part of the system is broken? Perhaps the system is not broken at all... Perhaps the problem lies with people not being prepared to give more than a fleeting thought to who they may vote for.

That's not to say that I don't think we need electoral reform. I am happy to keep a system of compulsory voting, but with some amendments. I would like to see the introduction of partial preferential voting, more stringent requirements to run for the senate and a limiting cap on the number of senate parties that can run (dependent on the amount of public support each party can garner). I would also like to see above the line voting abolished and senate donkey votes automatically discarded. I would like to see parties be required to provide a short dot-point list of key policies in plain boring Ariel text for display in the actual polling booth on the day to make it easier for people to determine their preferences. These suggestions may need some work or tweaking, but I think we at least need to start having a discussion about it.

In terms of party policy platforms, I'm personally not happy with either party (for different reasons) because I don't feel well represented by either and I complain about that... but it strikes me that many people just complain when their party loses. At the end of the day, if the party that I vote for doesn't win, I'm OK with that... All I want to see is a truly representative democracy.

Fireblade · 07-09-2013, 06:21 PM

Accountability - seems the public nor the politicians want to know about it.

See I believe they are all ******, I make my vote but I don't complain because the other side would do something else that would **** me off so I wouldn't win either way.

BHDOGS · 07-09-2013, 06:25 PM

Nobody is gonna sit there and mark 64 boxes it's a crock of **** and they know that they won't change **** and **** will stay the same the biggest problem with the system is it can't be changed except by the parties who wanna keep it the same the system is a broken piece of ****

ratter · 07-09-2013, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BHDOGS

Nobody is gonna sit there and mark 64 boxes it's a crock of **** and they know that they won't change **** and **** will stay the same the biggest problem with the system is it can't be changed except by the parties who wanna keep it the same the system is a broken piece of ****

65? I marked 97

I took the couple of minutes to do this as I did not know for sure where the preference votes from the small party I voted for would go, so I wanted to make sure they did not go to a party that I did not want running the country

beardo · 07-09-2013, 08:17 PM

My ballot paper looked like it needed dicks drawn all over it, so that's what it got

AndyXR6T · 07-09-2013, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beardo

My ballot paper looked like it needed dicks drawn all over it, so that's what it got

If you paid enough attention you would of realised that under all the boxes there were quite a few dicks printed on the paper already

**cs123** · 07-09-2013, 08:40 PM

I went to the effort of voting below the line. I wanted to vote for AMEP in the senate and the distribute my own preferences. It only took 5 minutes, no big deal for me. But then I relish the chance to have my say on election day.

BTW, the AMEP had a good showing at my polling both. They had a pro-charged Camaro with the bonnet open and decked out.

karj · 07-09-2013, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cs123

I went to the effort of voting below the line. I wanted to vote for AMEP in the senate and the distribute my own preferences. It only took 5 minutes, no big deal for me. But then I relish the chance to have my say on election day.

BTW, the AMEP had a good showing at my polling both. They had a pro-charged Camaro with the bonnet open and decked out.

It's good that you filled in the ballor paper below the line, but if it only took you 5 minutes to distribute senate preferences, you either have a very thorough understanding of all the minor parties or you're doing it wrong... or I'm doing it wrong lol. It took me about 2 and a half hours to research all the parties and decide how to distribute senate preferences (which I obviously did well before I went into the polling booth).

**cs123** · 07-09-2013, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karj

It's good that you filled in the ballor paper below the line, but if it only took you 5 minutes to distribute senate preferences, you either have a very thorough understanding of all the minor parties or you're doing it wrong... or I'm doing it wrong lol. It took me about 2 and a half hours to research all the parties and decide how to distribute senate preferences (which I obviously did well before I went into the polling booth).

Nope, I only wanted to preference 2 minor parties, after that I went to the majors and it didn't matter after that.

**GasoLane** · 07-09-2013, 09:26 PM

Something I just found out that you can have fun with at the next Election.

You can vote in Roman numerals on a senate ballot paper, or a mixture of both Roman and Ordinary numbers.

karj · 08-09-2013, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cs123

Nope, I only wanted to preference 2 minor parties, after that I went to the majors and it didn't matter after that.

Preferences after that do matter.

Senate positions are determined by quotas. If the major parties get votes surplus to the required quota, then surplus votes are transferred to the candidates you next preferenced. Because it can't be determined what votes are "surplus" all the votes for the successful candidate are transferred (at a reduced rate) to the candidates you next preferenced.

http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/counting/senate_count.htm

This isn't directed specifically at you, but I think we need a major education campaign to inform people how our electoral system works because it's pretty clear that many people don't understand it.