Tales from the polling booths

In my country NSW polling booth, there were just three HTV hander-outers – Liberal, Labor and Greens. Sadly, but perhaps inevitably given the childish state of Australian politics, there was some minor friction between the Liberals and the Labor people.

I also heard there were silly disputes in Bungendore.

Yes the inexperienced Labor people put their posters right at the door, and the AEC staff did not tell them to move. None of the Labor hander-outers were locals, and some of the Liberals were also from Queanbeyan. All the Greens hander-outers were local (including me). It says something when you have to bus your volunteers in (Okay, there was no bus, but you know what I mean).

The NSW Senate paper was about a metre long, and the little cardboard privacy booths were about half a metre wide. Can anyone spot the problem there?

Frankly, and although I take part in it, I think the whole HTV handing out think should be banned. It achieves nothing and it makes polling stations into circuses. If we really need “How to vote” information it should come from the AEC. And if it makes people have to think a bit harder before writing a number in a box, that would be a good thing.

Perhaps I should start a Ban The HTVs party and run for the Senate.

Given the success of the Liberal Democrats in NSW, maybe it is time to do something about the donkey vote. (They are not liberal, and they are barely democratic.) The shouldn’t get a senator in, but their preferences are going to play havoc.

IP

other than having to dodge the how-to-vote people in the car park with my car, the voting process was quite painless where I went.

however, in this day and age, in some booths, the pencils should be on the left hand side to make it easier to write.

then again, when will we go to electronic voting?

Not quite up to the high standard set by Holden Caulfield, but I should mention this.

When I got my sausage sandwich, some of the accompanying onions were burnt. “Sorry”, mumbled the hapless chef, but a confident, buxom young woman next to him assured me that they were jus ‘caramelised.’

“Caramelised”, I said – “They charge extra for that in fancy restaurants.”

He looked up at me with no expression and said: “Yeah, I been watchin’ MasterChef.”

OK, you had to be there.

But, that dry, deadpan Aussie humour is a national treasure.

I got three texts from Clive Palmer, but mine didn’t come through until 10:14am.

Wonder why he loves me so much?

I voted last Monday, just after lunch. There were no sausages and since Morrisett House in Quangers is an office building, the annoying leaflet people out front didn’t know who to acost. No queues, but they need to make the booths wider to accommodate the Senate ballot papers. although they did supply magnifying glasses.

I don’t know why everyone doesn’t pre-poll. It’s easy and convenient, and if everyone did it, the parties could save our money and stop buying advertising for the last 2 weeks.

grunge_hippy said :

He was very busy all day.

I think he was an imposter.

Primal said :

Spruikers were in the same place this time as they were in 2010, from memory.

They only have to be 6m from the door in a federal election. Way too close IMHO. It would have been nice to see a chalk line.

my brother, who is a BSO at a school said he had to tell several of the supporters off for climbing on the roof to put up banners and such, and that there were lots of arguments throughout the day if someone put their sign in front of someone else. He was very busy all day with their shenanigans.

Still managed to get around the how to voters, but rather displeased to be woken by a spam text from Clive Palmer at 6am….is this a violation of the blackout? I’d be happy to lodge a formal complaint if it is.

switch said :

Yes. Wasn’t it supposed to be 100 ft (or even metres)? Has it changed?

100m exclusion is only for territory elections. Spruikers were in the same place this time as they were in 2010, from memory.

All nice and civilised in Isabella Plains around 9am, maybe a 10 minute wait all up. The sausages hit the spot and there’s far too much of the chocolate brownie already eaten…

justin heywood said :

Did anyone else notice the party hawkers a LOT closer to the polling booths today?

Also amused to be accosted by a GetUp! person doing an ‘independent’ survey. I’m sure they’re really interested in how I was going to vote.

That was the first thing I noticed when I turned up.

justin heywood said :

Did anyone else notice the party hawkers a LOT closer to the polling booths today?

Yes. Wasn’t it supposed to be 100 ft (or even metres)? Has it changed?

Did anyone else notice the party hawkers a LOT closer to the polling booths today?

Also amused to be accosted by a GetUp! person doing an ‘independent’ survey. I’m sure they’re really interested in how I was going to vote.

Oh, one chap got an all round laugh from those handing out the leaflets at the Telopea Park booth when he was asked if he wanted a how to vote card from the Euthanasia Party.

His reply: “Not yet!”

I thought it might be a nice idea to vote at Old Parliament House. Seems like much of Canberra and all our interstate visitors thought the same.

I did turn up at 12:30pm, which I expect was one of the busier times of day, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that there was a 1 hour wait for local voters.

So I went to Telopea Park school and managed to get my vote done in 5 minutes or so. I did have to wait a good 10-15 minutes for my election snag though. Still, a better reward waiting for a sausage than queuing for an hour to vote!

Voted at Gowrie just before midday. I have never waited as long to vote, there was a large, slow-moving queue.

I have been comparing our system and the advantages of compulsory voting to those in Britain and the US. They have all sorts of logistical problems that our system avoids, usually. They vote on weekdays and have no idea how many voters are going to present etc.

This time around, maybe everybody chose to vote at around the same time. I can’t imaging that level of demand all day.

There seem to be predominately two sorts of voters: those, like me, who reject all how-to-vote bumf and others who have a copy of every party’s flyers. Very few in between.

The AEC were completely unprepared for the turnout at Old Parliament House. At 11:30 the queue to vote was a complete loop of the corridors around the senate chamber, before it was rerouted. Waiting time of 1hour+. Only 5 printed rolls and 15-20 booths to vote in (for ACT voters).

I heard that they expected only 600 voters but had 4000 through by 2pm.

Oops.

OK, I’ll kick off. At mine (Narrabundah Primary) they had very fine sausages sizzling (not just the cheapest from the local supermarket). The Simon Sheikh stall was run by a bunch of high school kids. None of them was old enough to vote, thank goodness.

The how to vote card handers-out were well mannered – I suspect that having a nice Spring day to be on duty helped. One of the local junkies was spotted staggering along the road asking every person she met “whereduyugoduvote?”

The first two cubicles I entered were missing their pencils – suspect that Ms Junkie’s partner had been in earlier. The usual informal market was set up in a house just along from the polling booth.

All in all, just a typical election day in the ‘bundah.

LSWCHP said :

We got to Giralang Primary about 1:30 and all the freedom sausages had been sold, which was a bummer. And it seemed like everybody had voted early, because there was no queue, and only a couple of other people voted in the ten minutes or so we were there.

I’m a long time Labor voter, but we have to move the ACT away from its Labor safe seat image. Go you minor parties! Tactical voting FTW!

I got to my voting booth at 7:50, thinking I’d beat the rush but ended up at the back of a long queue. Was out by about 8:20. The freedom sausages weren’t cooked yet.

We got to Giralang Primary about 1:30 and all the freedom sausages had been sold, which was a bummer. And it seemed like everybody had voted early, because there was no queue, and only a couple of other people voted in the ten minutes or so we were there.

I’m a long time Labor voter, but we have to move the ACT away from its Labor safe seat image. Go you minor parties! Tactical voting FTW!

Ummm, There’s voting going on ?