A question for my Australian friends:

[urbpan]

No, it's not about venomous spiders or snakes or monotremes, as much as I love those things.  My question has to do with the Australian voting system.  As I understand it (my disclaimer before exposing my utter and typical American ignorance of any culture other than my own) voting in Australia is required.  First of all: is this so?  Second, if so

Comments

[audacian]

The phrase is DRILL BABY DRILL, Joe.

[urbpan]

Did she just say "respect for women's rights"?

[audacian]

And she said we can't sit down with them but diplomacy and sitting down is what they'll do, first and foremost.

Sit down sit down.

[cottonmanifesto]

will sit down on them with our bombs!!!

[urbpan]

The way that he correctly pronounced "nuclear" three times in a row just now is clearly a condescension.

[cottonmanifesto]

he's an elitist from the east coast.

[gigglingwizard]

So much so he puts g's on every single ing. Makes him sound like he's wound too tightly. Definitely an East Coast thing.

[artemii]

this doesn't actually answer your question (don't you love comments that start that way?), but regardless of whether it's true for australia, i know it is for greece (or at least was when i was living there). if you aren't by your usual polling station at the time of voting (due to travel or whatever), you have to go to the nearest one to where you are. i know they enforce it, but i currently can't remember how, though i do remember that if you don't vote you have to have a reason such as being out of the country during election day.

[urbpan]

I think it's a good principle, but I'm worried that there might be more stupid people who aren't voting. Are there more smart people who don't vote? I don't know, Palin's jabber is eroding my thoughts as I type this.

[artemii]

it's also easier to enforce in a country that has around the population of NYC (if i recall correctly) than a population the size of the US's.

i think it's also something that's easier to keep enforcing than to introduce into a population, especially one with such a pathetic voter percentage as our own. i know people who don't know the name of their national House representative or where their polling station is.

[donnad]

Did she actually call him Senator O'Biden or did I mishear it?

[urbpan]

Someone else caught it, but I'm following so many online discussions I forgot who it was.

[donnad]

I agree, her voice just annoys me.

[cottonmanifesto]

i heard that.

[gemfyre]

Yes, voting is compulsory in state and federal elections (but not for local elections). However, the penalty is either not very bad and/or poorly enforced. Elections are held on Saturdays - pretty much every school becomes a polling booth, and if you're going to be elsewhere you can put in a postal vote. You do have to register and when elections are coming up there are plenty of ads reminding people who will turn 18 soon to register and those that have moved to correct their registration. I can't remember what it was like initially registering but altering a registration is a matter of filling out a card, getting it witnessed and posting it off. The most annoying thing is trying to figure out which electorate I was registered for previously (when you move a lot you may not update your registration before you move again

[urbpan]

Thanks for that! And thanks for your comments about my blog on yours, that was really nice. :)

In the states not only do very few people vote, but most people are poorly educated about the issues and candidates. Notice that President Bush was reelected.

[gemfyre]

Hey John Howard got re-elected here too. But really, although Rudd is more aesthetically pleasing, he's just the lesser of two evils.