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How long did you wait in line to vote? (Don't say who you voted for)
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<blockquote data-quote="Marg's Man" data-source="post: 209437" data-attributes="member: 4085"><p>Gday from Marg's Man,</p><p></p><p>MTMom91 said Too right, lady! Anyone who knows Marg knows that we complain when it's needed, voting gives us that right to complain. It's different for us in Australia because we don't so many other elections happening at the same time and we don't directly elect our Head of State who is Queen Elizabeth II. Twenty five minutes would be a V-E-R-Y long time to spend casting your vote at any one election.</p><p></p><p>We have multiple elections at different times with different terms so hardly a year goes by without some sort of election happening. We elected our Federal (National) Government for their four year (maximum) term last year, the next Federal poll could happen any time up until November 2011 but they will have some tough depending on which State you're in; here in NSW they have fixed four year terms. Local elections are on a fixed three year schedule but we only vote for the local council members. Posts like Crown Prosecutors (DA's), Police (all ranks), Sheriffs, Dog Catcher (do you REALLY vote for dog catchers?), etc are all government (various levels of government) employees. Combine this with compulsory voting at all three levels and we get a LOT of practice at running elections smoothly and coping with high voter turnout (typically 95+%). Absentee voting is easy and common, as is postal pre-poll voting. Even Aussies travelling overseas are well catered for - all our Embassies and High Commissions are polling places for those who wish to vote on the day. Elections are always held on a Saturday between 8 AM and 6 PM so most of the electorate don't have work/school conflicts.</p><p></p><p>I've been seeing the long queues on the news bulletins and been thinking to myself "Gosh they make it hard to vote!" I think I understand a little better now.</p><p></p><p>Marg's Man</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marg's Man, post: 209437, member: 4085"] Gday from Marg's Man, MTMom91 said Too right, lady! Anyone who knows Marg knows that we complain when it's needed, voting gives us that right to complain. It's different for us in Australia because we don't so many other elections happening at the same time and we don't directly elect our Head of State who is Queen Elizabeth II. Twenty five minutes would be a V-E-R-Y long time to spend casting your vote at any one election. We have multiple elections at different times with different terms so hardly a year goes by without some sort of election happening. We elected our Federal (National) Government for their four year (maximum) term last year, the next Federal poll could happen any time up until November 2011 but they will have some tough depending on which State you're in; here in NSW they have fixed four year terms. Local elections are on a fixed three year schedule but we only vote for the local council members. Posts like Crown Prosecutors (DA's), Police (all ranks), Sheriffs, Dog Catcher (do you REALLY vote for dog catchers?), etc are all government (various levels of government) employees. Combine this with compulsory voting at all three levels and we get a LOT of practice at running elections smoothly and coping with high voter turnout (typically 95+%). Absentee voting is easy and common, as is postal pre-poll voting. Even Aussies travelling overseas are well catered for - all our Embassies and High Commissions are polling places for those who wish to vote on the day. Elections are always held on a Saturday between 8 AM and 6 PM so most of the electorate don't have work/school conflicts. I've been seeing the long queues on the news bulletins and been thinking to myself "Gosh they make it hard to vote!" I think I understand a little better now. Marg's Man [/QUOTE]
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How long did you wait in line to vote? (Don't say who you voted for)
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