Kate SlackEnrol to vote!
July 18th 2010 03:50
With the announcement that the federal election will be held on 21 August 2010, un-enrolled voters have only today and until 8pm tomorrow night left to enrol. Those who are already enrolled but have changed residence and have not informed the Australian Electoral Commission of their change of address have until 8pm Thursday 22nd July to update those details. With this in mind I have dedicated this post to presenting the case for immediate enrolment. The following are 16 reasons to enrol:
1. Australian citizens above the age of 18 are legally obliged to vote. Since 1911 enrolment for federal elections has been compulsory. Since 1924 voting in federal elections has been compulsory and those eligible are therefore legally obliged to enrol. Section 245(1) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) states that “it shall be the duty of every elector to vote at each election”.
2. In its rawest form, as a member of a democracy and as a recipient of all of the benefits that flow from that, the only consideration for those benefits that citizens need pay is to cast a vote at election time.
3. The act of voting is the supreme civic duty performed by citizens. It is our opportunity to have a say and to hold the government to account. It gives the elected government a mandate to rule and it reminds them that they are answerable to the entire population when formulating policy and making management and platform decisions. It also ensures that the Parliament reflects the ‘will of a majority of the people’.
4. If you vote, you have participated in the process and have a right to expect that the party you gave your vote to will uphold their promises and fulfil your reasonable expectations of their governance. If they fail, you have a legitimate right to complain about it and petition them to change, fulfil a promise or uphold an obligation.
5. The duty is not particularly onerous. Electors can cast their vote by: attending at a polling place in your electorate; postal voting; pre-polling voting; absent voting; voting at Australian overseas missions; and, voting at mobile teams at hospitals and nursing homes and in remote location. Mr Christopher Bayliss, in a submission to the JSCEM said that “All our voting system requires is for a voter to attend a polling booth and mark some papers as they wish, approximately once every three years. This does not seem to be an insurmountable burden to be part of a democracy.”
6. It is a secret ballot so no one will know, unless you tell them, who you voted for.
7. While compulsory voting does increase the number of safe electorates and leads to the emergence of clear marginals which in turn leads to a heavy concentration of campaigning in those seats and targeted ‘pork barrelling’ resulting in increased government expenditure in those electorates at the expense of safer seats, the parties do not have to spend time convincing people to vote. Instead, the election campaign can be dedicated to the issues (while I recognise that a lot of time is spent on negative campaigning aimed at undercutting the opponents for seemingly trivial reasons, which in itself is offensive to democracy) and each parties’ plan about how to deal with them.
8. There is a direct link between the number of votes cast for the government and the amount of public funding they are given. The Australian Electoral Commission points out that “If a candidate secures 4% of the formal vote cast in the electorate for which they are a candidate, they are funded $1.95 for each formal vote.” If you vote for the party that wins government, your vote will equal money that will eventually trickle down and be spent either directly or indirectly on you.
9. The act of enrolment is not difficult. To enrol or update your details simply click on this link: Really Long Link
10. Voting and the opportunity to participate is a privilege and a gift that citizens should savour. Australian’s are tremendously lucky when you compare our situation to the gruesome histories and unimaginable struggles that people in other countries have had to and remain to face. Around 100 years ago, many people in the UK were killed in the fight to win the vote for women; in South Africa negroes were only able to vote from after the end of apartheid in 1994; in 1913 during a suffrage parade in the United States, women who paraded were spat on, slapped in the face, tripped, pelted with lit cigarettes and cigars, and insulted with language that newspapers couldn’t print; and, in countries today, where democracy is just emerging people line up for hours and even days to cast their vote.
11. Your vote will cancel out someone else’s vote. To stop someone’s vote for someone else from counting, cast your vote and things will be brought back to equal.
12. There are penalties for not voting. While it may only be a $100 fine, and the chances of you dodging it altogether are reasonable, it’s still $100. That’s a pair of shoes, petrol for a week or two, four or five CD’s, or around 12 vodka lime and sodas.
13. It’s our money the government is spending. Have a say in how they spend it and hold them to account when they don’t. It’s your children’s education; it’s your job; it’s your health care; they’re your tax dollars; it’s your social security – you should care about it.
14. Every vote counts. Think about this: In the US in 2000, one more vote per precinct in Florida would have elected Al Gore.
15. To help eradicate the stereotype that ‘young people are the most apathetic category of voters and the trend is only getting worse’. Young people are the future and we stand at the door to change. The more people willing to knock on that door and walk through it, the greater the change will be.
16. On election day every single eligible voter in Australia is equal. Your vote counts just as much as anyone else’s.
In Australia 1.4 million eligible voters are missing from the electoral roles. In a Radio National Interview on 8 July 2010, Australian Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn said that “Of about the 1.4 million we think about a third of those are in the 18 to 24 age group and then if you extend that to 18 to 39 our demographic research tells us that that's about 70 per cent of the 1.4 million, so it's clearly an age related issue.” Further, approximately 390 000 of those eligible to enrol but are not on the roll are Queenslanders. That’s around 1/3 of all un-enrolled voters. Don’t be one of these people. Cherish the gift you have been given and chose to be a part of this remarkable democracy.
1. Australian citizens above the age of 18 are legally obliged to vote. Since 1911 enrolment for federal elections has been compulsory. Since 1924 voting in federal elections has been compulsory and those eligible are therefore legally obliged to enrol. Section 245(1) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) states that “it shall be the duty of every elector to vote at each election”.
2. In its rawest form, as a member of a democracy and as a recipient of all of the benefits that flow from that, the only consideration for those benefits that citizens need pay is to cast a vote at election time.
3. The act of voting is the supreme civic duty performed by citizens. It is our opportunity to have a say and to hold the government to account. It gives the elected government a mandate to rule and it reminds them that they are answerable to the entire population when formulating policy and making management and platform decisions. It also ensures that the Parliament reflects the ‘will of a majority of the people’.
4. If you vote, you have participated in the process and have a right to expect that the party you gave your vote to will uphold their promises and fulfil your reasonable expectations of their governance. If they fail, you have a legitimate right to complain about it and petition them to change, fulfil a promise or uphold an obligation.
5. The duty is not particularly onerous. Electors can cast their vote by: attending at a polling place in your electorate; postal voting; pre-polling voting; absent voting; voting at Australian overseas missions; and, voting at mobile teams at hospitals and nursing homes and in remote location. Mr Christopher Bayliss, in a submission to the JSCEM said that “All our voting system requires is for a voter to attend a polling booth and mark some papers as they wish, approximately once every three years. This does not seem to be an insurmountable burden to be part of a democracy.”
6. It is a secret ballot so no one will know, unless you tell them, who you voted for.
7. While compulsory voting does increase the number of safe electorates and leads to the emergence of clear marginals which in turn leads to a heavy concentration of campaigning in those seats and targeted ‘pork barrelling’ resulting in increased government expenditure in those electorates at the expense of safer seats, the parties do not have to spend time convincing people to vote. Instead, the election campaign can be dedicated to the issues (while I recognise that a lot of time is spent on negative campaigning aimed at undercutting the opponents for seemingly trivial reasons, which in itself is offensive to democracy) and each parties’ plan about how to deal with them.
8. There is a direct link between the number of votes cast for the government and the amount of public funding they are given. The Australian Electoral Commission points out that “If a candidate secures 4% of the formal vote cast in the electorate for which they are a candidate, they are funded $1.95 for each formal vote.” If you vote for the party that wins government, your vote will equal money that will eventually trickle down and be spent either directly or indirectly on you.
9. The act of enrolment is not difficult. To enrol or update your details simply click on this link: Really Long Link
10. Voting and the opportunity to participate is a privilege and a gift that citizens should savour. Australian’s are tremendously lucky when you compare our situation to the gruesome histories and unimaginable struggles that people in other countries have had to and remain to face. Around 100 years ago, many people in the UK were killed in the fight to win the vote for women; in South Africa negroes were only able to vote from after the end of apartheid in 1994; in 1913 during a suffrage parade in the United States, women who paraded were spat on, slapped in the face, tripped, pelted with lit cigarettes and cigars, and insulted with language that newspapers couldn’t print; and, in countries today, where democracy is just emerging people line up for hours and even days to cast their vote.
11. Your vote will cancel out someone else’s vote. To stop someone’s vote for someone else from counting, cast your vote and things will be brought back to equal.
12. There are penalties for not voting. While it may only be a $100 fine, and the chances of you dodging it altogether are reasonable, it’s still $100. That’s a pair of shoes, petrol for a week or two, four or five CD’s, or around 12 vodka lime and sodas.
13. It’s our money the government is spending. Have a say in how they spend it and hold them to account when they don’t. It’s your children’s education; it’s your job; it’s your health care; they’re your tax dollars; it’s your social security – you should care about it.
14. Every vote counts. Think about this: In the US in 2000, one more vote per precinct in Florida would have elected Al Gore.
15. To help eradicate the stereotype that ‘young people are the most apathetic category of voters and the trend is only getting worse’. Young people are the future and we stand at the door to change. The more people willing to knock on that door and walk through it, the greater the change will be.
16. On election day every single eligible voter in Australia is equal. Your vote counts just as much as anyone else’s.
In Australia 1.4 million eligible voters are missing from the electoral roles. In a Radio National Interview on 8 July 2010, Australian Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn said that “Of about the 1.4 million we think about a third of those are in the 18 to 24 age group and then if you extend that to 18 to 39 our demographic research tells us that that's about 70 per cent of the 1.4 million, so it's clearly an age related issue.” Further, approximately 390 000 of those eligible to enrol but are not on the roll are Queenslanders. That’s around 1/3 of all un-enrolled voters. Don’t be one of these people. Cherish the gift you have been given and chose to be a part of this remarkable democracy.
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