"Election sausages" are

a traditional part of polling day here. All over the country people go to vote and find themselves confronted with the inevitable barbecue run by a school or church or charity. It depends on the location of the polling station.

One of the advantages of voting early is that you can avoid the barbecue. I am not one for a greasy sausage smothered in tomato sauce and wrapped in a slice of cheap white bread. It amazes me how many people do succumb to these culinary delights.

You are supposed to have a good excuse for voting early. You can vote early if you will be outside the electorate where you are enrolled to vote, you are more than eight kilometres from a polling place, travelling or unable to leave your workplace to vote. If you have religious beliefs that prevent you from attending on polling day you can also vote early. Most people are aware of those rules.

There are also other rules which allow you to vote early. They are perhaps even more important. Some of them relate to personal safety. "Silent" electors can vote early. These are people whose names do not appear on the electoral roll you or I would see. There is usually a security issue involved.

You can also vote early if you have a "reasonable" fear for your safety or well being. That can be very helpful for victims of domestic violence and others who are under other forms of social pressure.  

Electoral officials will go into prisons so that people serving a sentence of less than three years can vote. They will go into nursing homes and hospitals so that people do not have to travel to a polling place. And you can vote early if you are seriously ill or infirm or due to give birth or disabled - or caring for someone who is. 

Some people can also get a postal vote. The late Senior Cat had a postal vote for the last three elections he voted in. A good friend witnessed his signature on the first two occasions - it has to be added to the outside of the envelope you seal with the papers inside it.  On the third occasion I had to do it. I had to fill out the papers according to his instructions. He knew exactly what he was doing and he was not prepared to trust the nursing home staff or the electoral staff to do it for him. He voted just as I expected he would vote but I still felt unhappy about him having to tell me or anyone else. 

I have done this for other people too. It always makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I can still fill in a ballot paper clearly. I wonder what will happen when I cannot do this. In many ways I think it would be better to have someone I do not know at all. 

Yesterday I voted early. I had several valid reasons for doing this and the process was not as smooth as it should have been. The person marking names off the roll was obviously nervous. He could not find my name and I had to explain again where to find it. He passed over the ballot papers, one for the House of Representatives and the other for the Senate. I took them from him and went to fill them out. As I did so the official in charge gave me a smile and said, "Take your time."

I filled the papers out, put them in the relevant boxes and was on my way out the door when the official in charge was coming back in the other way. She stopped me and said, "There's someone here who needs some help. He says he knows you and would be happy for you to help if you are willing."

I looked back and there, to the side of the queue, was an old student of mine. He gave me an anxious smile and I gave him a thumb up to let him know I would help.  Soon I was filling out the papers according to his instructions. There were no surprises but he had felt the need to come early more because his brother, a man of radical political persuasion, would not vote the same way. "And I didn't want him doing it for me or getting me one of those b... election sausages."

There were no election sausages to be seen anywhere. It is yet another advantage of being able to vote early.