Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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!

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

Wha,....Who?........ Where.......... Why??? :D

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

I woke up this morning with an election :D

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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.

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

same here

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

I voted to avoid a fine.

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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!

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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!!!

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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.

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

Voted for Nick Fury because Australia needs more Avengers

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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!!!!

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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.

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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.

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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.

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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 ****

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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.

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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).

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

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. :lol

Re: Election today - Don't forget to vote
 

Election day would have to be one of the worse days to be driving around.

Increased traffic levels over an average Saturday and many drivers are just oblivious to the traffic around them. Right lane, 15 km per hour under the limit seemed to be standard of the day.