Voting misinformation....A post was made the other day (in our sister group) by a member about local elections, not voting and getting fined. Id just like to clear up a few things. Local elections are not compulsory, they are voluntary, so no fines will be issued for abstaining from voting. State and federal elections ARE compulsory IF your name is on the electoral roll - if you have never signed up you will not be fined, but you will not be able to vote either. If you are on the electoral roll you may still opt not to vote - but you must turn up to an electoral polling station and get your name ticked off the list, and the do what is called an INFORMAL vote. Lots of people call these DONKEY VOTES but that is incorrect. A donkey vote is when you vote in order of what appears on the ballot, so the first candidate gets vote one, the second candidate on the list gets your second vote, and the third person on the list gets the third vote, etc. An informal vote is where a person intentionally doesnt vote. They may leave the form blank, o choose to write something on their ballot - in my own personal case, I draw my own box underneath the others, tick it, and write none of the above next to it. That is my choice to do, i make that choice in a way which I feel I am very informed about. Also regarding writing on your ballot - as long as the votes are CLEARLY MARKED you may write on your ballot, and what you write actually gets recorded, stored and noted. This can be used as a form of protest - an example was during Howards reign of terror many people wrote LET THEM LAND on their ballots as a response to what was the current Tampa crisis at the time. If you write anything on your ballot whether you have numbered your boxes or opted not to vote, what you write gets recorded. Now I have heard plenty of people say if you dont vote, you dont have the right to complain which I find to be absurdist logic - I would counter that with if you have voted, you dont have a right to complain because you created this situation, you supported these people to have power... If you voted liberal for last election, what right do you have to complain about them? You gave them a mandate! Oh, but you voted labor? The same labor party who was quite happy furthering the LNP welfare to work agenda? I find it amusing when people say if you dont vote, dont complain as if voting is the only way people can participate in this so called democracy. A tick in a box once every four years, and you are a shining pillar of example of democracy in action? I say, if you dont protest, you dont have a right to complain. If you dont speak about the reality of poverty (or any of the govts other agendas or outcomes) you dont have a right to complain. If you think a tick in a box is the ultimate in democracy - you dont have a right to complain when everyone gets screwed over as they continually do by most governments in the history of time the whole world over. To keep doing the sàme thing over and over and expect different results is crazy! And then I would also add the old anarchist saying if voting changed anything, it would be illegal. This system is set up to serve the interests of the elite, and nobody else. If you want to vote, then good luck to you, but dont come out with notions about the right to vote giving you more right to complain than anyone else. Its a flawed logic and is on par with other Today Tonight style catch cries that are a shortcut to actually thinking. Voting or not, get informed. And if anyone wants links to verify what I am saying, on election day last year there was a picture I posted to the page of my ballot, which started a conversation, i which i provided links to the electoral commission and other relevant sites which confirm the information i am sharing. Please feel fee to go have a look in the pages photo album for more info.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 22:18:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015