Queensland is having a state election on March 24th to determine who will be our premier. I missed out on voting in the general election of 2010 as I had only become a citizen a month beforehand and the authorities didn't have time to get me onto the electoral roll. This time I'm leaving nothing to chance and have applied for a postal vote as I'll be working on election day.
In Australia it is compulsory to vote; if you don't, you'll get a $20 fine. If you don't pay the fine, you could be prosecuted. As a result, Australia has a very high voter turnout! And don't worry if you think every candidate is a dud: you can choose to spoil your ballot paper in protest. Personally, after being here for nearly 7 years, I'm excited to finally have my say.
Congrats on finally being able to have your say.
ReplyDeleteSlight correction - the fine for not voting is $50. And jumps to $100 if you don't respond to the Apparent Failure to Vote Notice or the response is not accepted.
I got my info from the electoral commission website. Read more here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aec.gov.au/faqs/voting_australia.htm#not-vote
When I turned 18, I was excited about being able to vote. After a few years, I found voting to be tedious. And last year, I walked around to the primary school down the street from my place to vote only to find it was no longer a polling booth anymore - and no they didn't tell anyone. So there were about 50 people standing around wondering what the hell was going on; and we were all stuck for a place to vote! How dumb can ya get?
ReplyDeleteWell, I had to bum a ride from my parents and vote at a high school 2km from my house... and the volunteers there were shocked that I hadn't been told about the primary school not being used as they knew (but it hadn't been taken out of the local papers).
I hate voting. :(
I LOVE voting! even if MY candidate hasn't a hope! And this state election could be pretty interesting; but Cara darling sweet heart love; the election is Saturday 24th March (not the 25th)
ReplyDeleteand just had to add -
Lock the Gate
and if you don't know what that means- check the website- this will affect all our futures!
Aha! Whoops! Yes thankyou for that I'll change that.
ReplyDeleteI was fascinated by how much funding parties like The Australian Sex Party seemed to have when I was over there. Enjoy the experience!
ReplyDeleteI believe it's actually illegal in Australia to encourage donkey voting....you may want to alter your post
ReplyDelete