 Category: How Is This Even Possible
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May. 7th, 2010 @ 07:32 am 
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So, in Australia, we have compulsory voting. Everyone eligible to vote is required to vote.
This is not universally loved, but it has strong advantages. In countries without compulsory voting, there are often extremely low voter turnouts among the disadvantaged groups of society, who are therefore cheerfully overlooked by most politicians, thus furthering their sense of disconnect from any relevance to their lives, and therefore discouraging their voting. This is bad. "Get out the vote" initiatives amongst minorities seem to attract a lot of scandal, and it's well-known that certain groups in America in particular have actively worked to suppress minority votes.
In Australia this does not happen. Everybody has to vote, which means that the Australian Electoral Commission keeps everybody on the electoral rolls as a matter of course, there are polling stations everywhere, and if someone was attempting to block people voting, they'd get caught and prosecuted. Caught because the AEC would ask the people who didn't vote why not (because if you don't vote, they ask, and if you don't have a good answer, you get fined), and they'd explain that they were prevented because of X, and the AEC would go OH REALLY and muster relevant police and judicial forces, because the AEC takes elections very seriously.
Elections take place on Saturdays, because most people work on weekdays; if you're not in your own electorate on election day, you turn up to whatever polling station you ARE close to, and you say, "Hey, I live in [area]," and they give you the ballots for your own electorate and an envelope to seal them in, and your ballots are taken to your electorate for you.
And of course, because everybody votes, they're always confident of what the voter turnout will be like, and queues are rarely very long and they never run out of ballots. (Occasionally some polling stations will run out of ballots for other electorates; they have a system for handling this, however, and ballots will be supplied.)
This is my country.
Which is why, you see, I have a reaction of total consternation to this: How is it even possible that voters can be turned away from polling booths without being allowed to vote?
This is a sign that whoever is running your elections is terrible at their jobs.
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Found this post via Latest Things and I felt compelled to respond.
The fact that voters were turned away without being allowed to vote boggles my mind as well. I'm American, so I suppose our election days may operate a bit more similarly to those in the UK. And yes, sometimes people get turned away without being allowed to vote.
But in my experience as an election officer overseeing the voting process? It's only happened because someone arrived after the polls had already closed. The local policy about being in line when the polls close is that you get to cast your vote if you're in line when the polls close. In the four years I've been an election officer and worked the elections, I've only encountered this needing to happen once, when turnout already predicted to be higher than normal was anticipated during the presidential election of 2008 and attempted to compensate for. Then the turnout was higher even than anticipated at some precincts that were heavy in college students.
Also found you via latest things feed.
Basically, there has been inexcusable incompetence at local stations, because apparently even having seven weeks of finalised registrations is not enough to get enough warm bodies and polling papers in.
And by law, we vote on the 5th or 6th of May, at least every five years, between 7am and 10pm. They have to close the poll at 10pm on the dot, that's when the boxes are sealed. Which is quite widely broadcast, so my sympathies for the shocked are a little limited. It isn't hard, for anybody, if you switch your brain on. Apparently everyont concerned had theirs switched off, this hasn't happened before, barring fire, flood and other Acts of Gods which generally cause everyone concerned to throw up their hands and call a by election a week or so later.
It isn't hard, for anybody, if you switch your brain on. bollocks! Anybody who lives within walking distance of a polling station, is not disabled, doesn't have responsibility for children who aren't going to school yet, and doesn't have to be at work, maybe. From (getting home from your commute) to (10 o'clock) isn't that long when you notice that some people were queuing for hours and still didn't get in. Also, some polling stations ran out of ballots.
Sorry, wasn't clear - was aiming that at the polling stations, not voters, except for the shocked -at-the-closing-time part (the rule's been there for a long time, they advertise it, this is not the bit of this fiasco that people should be shocked by).
They had seven weeks notice of who is registered where and how many people and ballots they needed. The Electoral Commission is going to hammer them, they'll have to pay out horrifying amounts of money in compensations and I'll be amazed if we don't get by-elections. Mind you, given some of the rest of what's come out, it could get much worse. Sheffield Hallam is a disaster area.
Have you seen this? ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif) jady_lady's account of her problems voting as a blind voter (via FWD). I guess they have better access provisions at polling stations in Australia then.
![[User Picture Icon]](https://v2.dreamwidth.org/3974986/75896) |
| From: | ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) sami |
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| Date: |
May 9th, 2010 11:21 am (UTC) |
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Well. People with disabilities in relatively normal circumstances: You turn up at a polling station, and one of the poll workers will take you through (skipping the queue, if there is one), and give you any and all assistance you require. Even if you're just a little bit frail - one time I voted, there was an older woman who was feeling a little unwell and finding the heat oppressive (summer election), and she was supplied with a chair and bypassed the queue.
If you can't get to a polling station, you can cast an absentee ballot; if you contact the AEC in advance they'll give you whatever help you require with this. (Seriously, the AEC go to people's houses to give election-related assistance.)
And if you're in hospital, they're set up for that too. We had an election while my mother was in hospital once. They set up a polling station in the ward. If you're well enough to go to it, you get taken there in a wheelchair (or you can walk, if you're well enough to do *that*); if you're not, they bring your ballot to you in your room.
I don't think they have a system for people who aren't conscious during polling hours, but basically? Everybody votes.
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