Saturday 20 March 2010

V day has arrived

and this means voting for some.
Since two elderly acquaintances moved into nursing homes I have not seen as much of the other elderly residents in their group of Elderly Citizens Housing units or their friends. I was therefore unaware of the concerns being raised about the Easy Voting Cards. Two people stopped me yesterday and asked if they could just give the cards to other people to vote for them as these people knew what they wanted. NO!
I then made some inquiries and it is clear that the purpose of these cards is unclear to most voters. Nobody seems to know how they will be used but the claim is that it will be faster to vote this way. As more than $600,000 will have been spent on postage alone there should be some benefit to the taxpayer but it is difficult to see what the benefit is apart from, perhaps, saving a few minutes.
There would also appear to be an even greater potential for fraud - although I feel certain that this is designed with the opposite purpose in mind. It is possible to vote without being in possession of a card. They tell you this and just say it will take longer. Right. We now have a situation where you can turn up with the card and vote and then head off to another polling booth and vote again without the card. When the Electoral Commission wises up to two votes in your name it is a matter of , "I lost the card. Someone else must have used it."
There are also many other potential variations on this theme. They are more than ever likely to be tried at this election because the result is likely to be very close.
As there is clearly widespread confusion about the Easy Voting Card I did what I believed to be the responsible thing. I contacted the Electoral Commission by e-mail and explained the problem. I had a telephone call from an highly obnoxious young man who told me that there would always be a small minority of people who attempted to use votes fraudulently. When I tried to explain that I knew this and it was not the purpose of my call rather I was requesting they get on the airwaves and explain purpose of the Easy Voting Card and how it would be used he slammed the 'phone down. Clearly we are not permitted to know these things.
The media has long since decided the incumbents will remain in office. The Electoral Commission has decided that we do not need to know about how to cast a vote.
I wonder why we need to vote at all. Surely it would just be simpler if the Revered State Leader was allowed to continue unto death? It would save a lot of money. On the other hand....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for visiting. I wonder to your blog from Jean's Knitting. I started visiting occasionally when I saw on your profile that you live in Adelaide. My best friend lives in Taperoo. We talk on the phone every week and a lot of it is Aussie and US politics.

Anonymous said...

that should be "wander" not wonder.
I wonder a lot but I don't wander as much as I would like.

catdownunder said...

Taperoo is the other side of the city...my brother once taught at the high school there - many moons ago!