Voting

Maybe it's because I'm Australian, a country where we have to attend elections. Yep, it's a $50 fine if you don't get an attendance mark at an election. Ooooh, it sounds so very totalitarian doesn't it? Indeed, I was fined for failing to vote in the local council elections held on August 2nd 1986. I didn't vote because on that day I was in Canada but my excuse was found to be inadequate (I should have done an early vote or applied for a postal vote).

A second failure to vote in the Victorian State elections held on November 30th 2002 was excused because I moved to the USA on November 17th 2002; that was deemed acceptable!

It's often mischaracterised as compulsory voting when in fact it's nothing more than compulsory attendance. Once they mark your name and hand you the ballot it stops being compulsory because, of course, the ballot is secret. No one is allowed to watch what you actually mark on the ballot. Indeed, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the secret ballot was also called the 'Australian Ballot'.

If you've ever watched the actual counting of an Australian vote you'll never doubt that it's honest. Scrutineers from each party represented at the seat paw over the ballot in an embarassing fashion.

Tonight we went out to dinner and ten pin bowling to celebrate my other step daughters birthday. Shelby is now 21. I get on pretty well with Shelby, much better than I get on with Morgan, probably because Shelby and I don't live under the same roof. And over dinner talk turned to politics. Not so much who supports George W Bush vs whoever the Democrat pretender is. It turned on the question of who actually votes. And the kids dad (a man half a year younger than I am) proudly averred that he had never ever voted in a US election.

Uh huh. Maybe it's because I'm an Australian and we have to vote or pay $50 for the failure but man oh man, how many generations have died to establish one man one vote? I'm not blind or stupid; it's not really one man one vote but the principle still stands. I can't imagine letting an election pass in which I didn't vote. Indeed, one reason, one compelling reason, why I want to become a US citizen is because I feel disenfranchised. It was very difficult, last November 2nd, to drive past the polling places knowing that I could not vote. If I'm going to live here I'm sure as hell going to want to vote for the people who run the place!

I came 2nd of 7 in the bowling. One strike, 7 spares. Not bad for someone who's bowled maybe 7 times in 51 years! :-)