Meant to congratulate y'all on a good Sausage Day

The Garage
#1

This is about politics. Please skip if politics is not something you care about.

Congrats, Aussies! I watched the results come in religiously and was happy to watch LNP go down and Scotty finally get kicked out of office. One of the reasons I chose not to stay and immigrate to Straya was when Tony took over after the labor knife fight between Julia and Kevin. I broke out the same bottle of 69% Overproof Dark Rum I had previously opened when Biden took Georgia (I had previously block walked all of Metro Atlanta in 2006 to help build primary wins there).

I’m particularly happy about the strength of the Greens and the Cross-bench (Teal Indies, yay!), and I expect Labor to be pushed to the left. Both major parties were put on notice. Dutton holding on to his seat and gaining control of the opposition is unfortunate, I was hoping he’d have lost, but at least the turn against him was significant. And I think Penny Wong is going to make an excellent MOFA.

I think this is the Australia I thought I might be getting when I considered staying in 2011. Maybe the Fair Go will get a bit fairer. Julia herself once asked me to rethink my choice of leaving when Tony took over, which meant a lot to me, but that ship has sailed (I’m too old now for the visa program I had qualified for), but I’m wishing you all the best of luck with your new government, and I hope to visit soon!

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#2

Thank you!

I am happy with the results, too.

Labor is a long way from the 51% of the primary vote they had when Kim Beasley lost back in cough…

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#3

Oh and… the democracy sausage is dying! Lot of people doing postal votes and pre-polling to avoid the main voting day…

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#4

Nooooooooooo.

It’s such a great tradition.

#5

The Bunnings sausage has taken over…

#6

It’s evolving. A polling place (school) near me had veggie democracy sausages

#7

I voted on day 1 of the early voting period, as I tend to do these days, but I still went out on Election Day looking for a vegan snag.

And some election trivia … recent PMs to win more than one election: John Howard, Bob Hawke, Malcolm Fraser, Robert Menzies (ie. it’s rare)

#8

We were eyeing off the canteen at our local school while lining up to vote. At 10:20 we walked out just as the shutters came down. Dammit! What is going on?

#9

I obviously do email vote as an American almost all the time (I have lived abroad for nearly 15 years now, between Korea, Japan, Australia, and Japan again), but I did get to vote last year for my congress critter in a special election that just happened to hit while I was visiting. Even though I was listed as an overseas voter, you can ALWAYS vote in person, you just need to sign an affidavit that you won’t use your email/postal ballot.

No sausage equivalent. I did go to a local diner afterwords for a voting day breakfast though, a treat for doing a democracy and all that.

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#10

At least you got the spirit of it. :slight_smile:

I actually like to go along and get a how-to-vote card from everyone, and then toss them all out. Bad for the planet I know, but I figure maybe I’ll be saving someone else from being handed one - will help deplete their stocks…

But - for the last few elections as noted I’ve gone postal or pre-poll to avoid the crowds…

#11

This last election was the first time I have voted on the day for many years. To be honest it wasn’t really much different to doing a pre-poll.

#12

There’s no difference in the US between the experience of early voting and voting on the day, except that voting on the day seems to make people feel more excited. I even vote by email on the day just because I can, so I feel like “part” of it–even though they send me the ballot like two months before (June 7th is primary day, and I’ll send it on June 7th).

One of the cool things about voting on the day for my state is that they actually give you live updates as to your ballot. “Your ballot has been received.” “Your ballot has been printed out.” “Your ballot has been handed to the talliers.” “Your vote has now been counted.”

It’s both absolutely ridiculous and yet extremely reassuring. You really know you did a democracy, despite being on the other side of an ocean. Not all US states do it that way, but I think they should.

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#13

Gimme email voting!

If we are not far from having driver’s licenses on our phones… surely we can vote electronically soon!

Then we could have results the same day.

I don’t think there’d be as much voter fraud crap as the USA - though I appreciate the 1 reason for that…

#14

Voter fraud is practically non-existent. It’s a ridiculous talking point.

#15

Soon as Trump said the words… was so obvious that was his plan…

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#16

It does seem hard to believe that we cannot vote online, given that we have been able to do the following online for years:

  • Bank online
  • Do the census online
  • Pay people online
  • Shop online
  • Book overseas travel online
  • Do tax online
  • Buy and sell property digitally

The level of risk associated with these tasks seem to be similar or higher than voting.

#17

The personal risk is not huge… but the societal impact of electronic voting being abused would be huge. That said - I’d guess there’s a good few systems already working around the world that could be reviewed for adoption into Australia.

#18

The main issue of voting online is down to the risks associated with it. No online system has ever been perfectly secure and without issues. Very easy for someones personal computer to be compromised and their vote changed without them even knowing. And there definitely would be foreign states that have the means to and would want to impact our elections for their own benefits.

The only thing I could potentially see occurring is digital stands at polling booths. As least they can be somewhat controlled and audited afterwards. But can you imagine if 3 months after an election, a percentage of voting stations was found to be compromised. “Alright, we need everyone to vote again”.

The best thing going for physical forms is that at least they have physical copies and a recount can be performed if foul play is suspected without the need to involve the nations citizens.

#19

Hear hear!
Share your views, and opened a quality bottle of red to celebrate around 9pm - though I’ll passed on the democracy sausage with a side of COVID. Havent voted on election day in 20-years, and had no intention to this year!

Choosing to prepoll or postal (or electronic maybe in 2022!) should be allowed for everyone, no questions asked.

Whilst Labor has a majority, they still have to deal with the Greens in the senate, so may pull their legislation to the left.

#20

incredible amounts of swearing

I didn’t send in my ballot, because between work and union emergencies, I missed the submission deadline about three hours ago.

The downside to “voting on the day.”

Haven’t missed a vote in YEARS.

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