The Voting Dilemma

It’s crazy, they’re making us vote for someone we don’t even know.

With only a couple of days to go until (yet another) election is done and dusted, the collective sigh of relief this whole country is going to utter on Sunday morning once it’s over will be heard on the moon, I’m wagering. Whether this one wins or that one wins, our TVs, Radios, Newspapers, iPads, computers and phones will finally be able to get back to their regular jobs of annoying us with ads for bargain clothes, shoes, food and insurance. Phew, I was kinda missing all that!

I’m away on Election Day. So I took the option of voting early, just like a couple of millions of Australians who it appears will also be ‘away’ on election day. It’s not for me to judge, but I’d have a side bet that a large number of pre-poll votes were done just so that people could just get it over with, and not have to pay any more attention to the deafening white noise that has dominated the last six months.

Pretending to be on my phone and ignoring those people outside the polling station pushing the how-to-vote flyers in my face, I made it inside the door, had my name ticked off and picked up the voting papers. I knew who I was voting for, and also who I definitely was not voting for. But then the lovely lady behind the counter informed me (the ads hadn’t been on TV about it yet) that even if I voted above the line on the senate form, I had to vote for at least SIX players, and that I had to vote 1 to 7 on our local form. Hmmm … hadn’t planned for that. It took me a little by surprise. Perusing the names on our ballot paper for the seat of Calare, I noted that of the seven candidates on the voting form, I ‘knew’ three of them (two of who were on my ‘no’ list) and then there were four candidates who’s names I’d never even heard of, even though I’ve lived in the district for just shy of thirty years. But if we want our votes to count, we’re required to ‘vote’ for people who we never even heard of. In some cases we might have an idea of what their parties believe in, but maybe not in other cases. So, here’s the dilemma for all of us … do we rank our votes in an order which puts the ones we don’t want, below those who we’ve never even heard of (or whose party ideas we don’t really subscribe to)? Or do we leave those we believe shouldn’t be in power at the bottom, and rank those we’ve never laid eyes on above them? Both of these options seem totally illogical in my opinion.

Then there’s the Senate paper – you can’t even lay it out in the voting booth it’s so absurdly wide. Give six votes Paul, and make them measured, valid and considered. Oh my, that’s even more absurd than the House of Reps voting system. There’s the couple I’ll vote for, the other ‘main’ parties, the wannabe parties, the ones who I’ll never vote for, the humorous ones, the ridiculous ones, the single issue ones, others I really haven’t heard of, plus others who’ve been in the news for all the wrong reasons. There’s no way known I’d give a vote to six of them above the line if I wasn’t being forced to. So … do you go with the devil you know, or the devil you don’t? Good luck and have your say – just be careful so that you aren’t in the 9% who end up having their vote voided. Woo hoo – next week things will be back to ‘normal.’