Voting

Last Saturday we had a federal election in Australia. As a new citizen of this country, I'd voted before - several months back there was a mail-in local election. Mail-in votes were allowed for this election, too, for those who wanted to go that route. For the rest of us, it meant turning up at a polling place and casting our ballot in person.

It was a very different experience from voting back in Ohio.  Let me explain.

When I was in the US, I lived in Reynoldsburg, Ohio - a suburb of Columbus (capital of that state). Voting in the US is optional, unlike Australia where every citizen is required to vote. In Ohio you are assigned a specific place to go for voting and when you turn up there's generally a queue, sometimes quite long. Because voting isn't required, those setting up the polling areas don't really know how many people are going to show up - and because voting is done on a week day, there are log jams of people before and after normal office hours.  I can remember times when I stood in line for well over an hour waiting for my turn, and can remember hearing many horror stories about people standing in line for hours. Voting there is done via an automated voting machine - a large boxy shaped metal cabinet where you flip levers next to the names of candidates or to indicate "yes" or "no" on issues up for voting. The cabinet is enclosed by a thick curtain which closes around you before you vote, and which is yanked back when you pull the large lever to lock your vote into position.

Here?  Very different experience.



As hubby Stephen and I approached the grammar school (our local polling place) we were greeted at the gateway to the school by a swarm of members of various parties, handing out little advertising sheets for their candidates, showing exactly how to mark your ballots. I was surprised to see them so close to the entrance and in such numbers (esp. for a tiny little village like ours). In the US they'd never have been allowed so close to a polling venue.

Inside the school we stood in a short line for, maybe, 15 minutes. Then I was directed up to one of two people who were registering voters. They looked up my name in a huge book and put a little mark next to it, indicating that I'd showed up as required.  Then I was handed two paper ballots: one a small green paper with the names of candidates for the House of Representatives on it and the other a very long white sheet used to record my vote for the Senate.  No technology involved - just paper and pencils (on strings which were secured to little polling stations).

Now it gets complicated.

On the green sheet I was to put a number next to each candidate (even the ones I didn't want), indicating how I ranked them (1 for preferred, 2 for next-preferred and so on). If I failed to give each candidate a unique ranking, my ballot would be declared invalid. There were only a few names, so it wasn't hard.

The Senate ballot, however, oh my.  The Senate ballot had all the candidates (nearly 100!) grouped by party. There were two ways to use the ballot.  You could either vote for the party (which involves just putting a "1" next to the party name) or individually - which involved ranking each and every individual candidate from "1" to "97" (yes... you read that right: 97 candidates for the Senate).  Certainly much easier to vote for the party and not individuals. 

Voters were reminded over and over that if you were to accidentally mess up your ballot, the folks running the venue would be happy to give you a new one so you could start over.

No curtains, no "secret booth", just little cardboard cubbies side-by-side, so that you were elbow-to-elbow with your neighbors marking your ballot.

After marking the ballots, voters were directed to deposit them in large cardboard boxes near the exit of the room. As I made my way to those boxes I heard a familiar voice calling to me and saw "Chris" - one of our local school crossing guards grinning at me (he was standing in line waiting his turn to vote). I changed course and quickly went over to him to give him a hug, ballots still in my hands. Then I suddenly realized what I was doing and for a second worried that I might have broken some kind of rule - but nobody batted an eye. I turned and went on to deposit my ballots and headed out the door, waving goodbye to Chris.

I've been voting in US elections for nearly 40 years and always felt it an important act, something to be taken seriously. It always gives me a great feeling of responsibility and participation. Voting here in Australia was just like that - but I have to admit that with the low-tech approach and the atmosphere, well, it really touched me. It felt more "organic" somehow... ...well, that's not quite the word I want, but it was a sense of accessible democracy.