Democracy time

[stephbg]

After several lapsed schedulings and a failed physical attempt last week to vote early I managed to do it today, and it's something I'm likely to keep doing in the future.

Today I voted at this early polling place in Kingsley. I usually vote here. Parking wasn't quite the walk in the park I'd hoped, but I only needed one space nearby and got that, so I still call it a win.  My usual polling station is on the side of quite a steep hill on a curved road, with mostly road-side drop-off zone parking so you can sometimes cruise for a while amongst many others doing the same, and end up some distance (in my terms) from the polling station itself.

Regular polling station: 0

Early polling station: 1

I had been looking forward to avoiding the gauntlet of pamphleteers and giant candidate faces, but there was a small presence outside the office. Come to think of it, I wonder what minimum distance they're supposed to keep from the actual polling station – these people were mere feet away, albeit on the other side of a glass door. Most of them were kept at bay by my keeping-at-bay face - a firm-but-polite smile, no-nonsense head shaking, and the brandishing of my own voting materials, in the case my printout from belowtheline.org.au. Where necessary I added verbal discouargement in the form of "I came prepared," "It's too late," or "Thank you, no." The local ALP candidate was there himself and made a good effort against my defences, but I defeated him. Professional tip: don't try to shake hands with someone whose hands are full with a cane and paperwork. All in all it was far less of a circus than usual, and I didn't have to listen to them try to convince other people even after I'd fought them off personally.

Regular polling station: 0

Early polling station: 2

Whether or not there was a queue is something of a matter of semantics. Yes, I had to pause for a few seconds after coming through the door before I was served, but that time was spent scanning the room for signage. At no point did I actually wait, let alone amongst the press of humanity (or at least that subset with an uncanny instinct for stepping on my heels or driving elbows into my spine who always seem to vote at the same times and places as I).

Regular polling station: 0

Early polling station: 3

The Nice Man behind the desk was exactly on par with the usual Nice Persons one encounters at such events, and took just as long (i.e. a smidge longer than it really should have) to locate me on the roll. Hyphens! Tools of the Devil!

Regular polling station: 1

Early polling station: 4

This polling station had been marked as accessible, so I hoped this meant that I'd be able sit. There was indeed a seated booth, and the Nice Man even pointed it out to me unasked (I was With Cane). It was a little hard to miss, as it was pretty much right next to where I was standing. It didn't feel particularly private, but at least it was there and I was very grateful for it, and the whole place was indeed wheelchair-friendly. I couldn't say if there was seating available at my regular place, but there are definitely stairs involved. Having accessibility on the brain I did ask afterwards if they had the magnifying glasses that had been advertised to help with reading the ridiculous Senate paper. (Personally I think they were intended to help you detect any shred of humanity or common sense amongst any of the candidates.) Alas, my booth was sans glass, and afterwards when I asked the Nice Man at the desk about them I was shown a plastic magnifying sheet thingie that looked like it was supposed to live at the desk to assist people in reading the roll. It certainly wasn't the thing I'd seen advertised. A Fierce Woman scowled at me as I made my request. Clearly I was Trouble, even though I hadn't bothered to dress in my usual pink/green (Pinko Commie Environmentalist) voting colours. I suppose there is still a trace of purple in my hair. Rad.

Regular polling station: 1

Early polling station: 5

The House of Reps ballot was the usual sensible size, but at about a metre wide the Senate ballot was as ridiculous as you'd expect. If you're as despairing of the current state of politics in Australia as I, you'll want to vote below the line to pump your vote full of as much social commentary as possible and distribute those preferences with care. Miracles *can* happen in the Senate. Before you face the paperwork, go to belowtheline.org.au and use the nifty drag-and-drop interface to sort the candidates from least to most horrendous.  To be honest I struggled to meaningfully sort the last 40 or so, so they more-or-less got a rough sort into a Hell No Cluster(Fuck). The site then converts your sorted list into your own how-to-vote card, mimicking the original ballot. PRINT THIS. TAKE THIS WITH YOU TO THE POLLING STATION.

Even if you've done your homework and know who's going where, you can save yourself buckets of time and especially paper shuffling if all you have to do is transcribe the numbers from the front of the ballot to the back. For added safety, vote 1 for your preferred party ABOVE the line as well – if you render your below-the-line vote informal by skipping or repeating a number, your above-the-line vote will then be counted instead. I checked with the Nice Man, and he confirmed that the below-the-line vote is counted first, and only if that is informal will the above-the-line vote be taken into account. Think of it as insurance.

This place had no public ballot boxes, so it was necessary to hand over my folded ballot papers to the Nice Man to put both into a clear plastic locked container. In theory it's bad to let your vote go out of your hand before it goes into a box, but I could see what he was doing, and similarly in theory I could have leapt over the counter to prevent any kind of election fraud naughtiness he might have attempted. I'll call this one a tie.

Regular polling station: 2

Early polling station: 6

It was nearly lunchtime when I exited the office. BUT THERE WAS NO SAUSAGE SIZZLE. (Granted I wouldn't have had one myself, but that's not the point.)

Regular polling station: 3

Early polling station: 6

And finally, for general convenience factor of not having to go out and do something strenuous on a particular day, but have multiple days in which to make the attempt? Priceless

FINAL SCORE

Regular polling station: 3

Early polling station: 7

ETA: To correct "Labour" to ALP because I can't bring myself to spell it Labor.