[LMB] OT: Voting was all-purpose open letter

[Jacki Knight]

On 05/11/2007, at 10:57 AM, Raye Johnsen wrote:
> Here in Australia, it is illegal NOT to vote.  If
> you're over eighteen, you are legally required to
> register on the electoral roll.  The penalty for being
> caught unregistered is a fine and being forcibly
> registered.  If you're on the roll, you either vote,
> have a legally-acceptable reason not to, or pay a
> heavy fine.

Technically, you only have to show up at the polling station, have your 
name marked off and accept your ballot paper(s).  How you mark that 
ballot paper - or even if you do - before you put it in the box is up 
to you.

So you're not legally obliged to vote at all.  Mind you, if you go to 
all the trouble of showing up, the least you should do is take a few 
minutes to consider the future of your country for the next few years 
and actually vote properly.

Interestingly, with the advent of computerised voting it is becoming 
almost impossible to register an informal vote - you have to choose 
someone on the screen or you can't finish. I guess you could just go 
through the motions but not actually touch the screen at all.

Jacki in Canberra - where it's very quiet at the moment as all the 
pollies are at home in their electorates as we're past the halfway mark 
now

"It doesn't matter who you vote for - a politician still gets elected"