@mxchara @benroyce @GoSeiGer @randahl

#Australia has #compulsoryvoting.

There is postal voting open weeks ahead. There is a week of pre-poll voting where voting booths are open before voting day so you can go from work, or for older or disabled people to avoid queues.

Our voting days are always on a Saturday, to help those who work on weekdays.

There are multiple polling booths in big cities, and several in smaller towns so usually easy or close to work or home. Often we vote in a local school or community hall.

It is compulsory to be on a local Electoral Roll and we are checked off against that. We therefore do not need identification.

To sum up - because it is compulsory it is made as easy and accessible as possible for everyone to vote.

In fact it is usually a perfectly easy, fairly quick procedure. It is good humoured and friendly, you see your friends and neighbours often on voluntary cake stalls or #DemocracySausage sizzles using the crowds to raise money for charities.

If #USA had compulsory voting and a straightforward system where the majority vote wins, I do not believe they would have had the horrendous results they are living with now.

I am eternally thankful for the fairness of the Australian voting system.

Sadly the local polling booth today did not have #democracySausage available. The usual venue was unavailable and so there wasn't the school fund-raiser that would be cooking them.

State Election in South Australia today!

If you live in South Australia, be sure to vote with a conscience, and get yourself a Democracy Sausage.

Bin Chicken Psephology Polling predicts:
- ALP will phone it in. They're taking it for granted they'll win with a reduced but still comfortable majority. The party have their head in the sand, but will hype it as "Steady as she goes."
- One Nation will steal anything not nailed-down, and grab practically all Coalition seats and marginal Labor seats. They're on track to become the most noisome, extreme-right neo-nazi state or federal Opposition party seen living memory (which, I have to declare, is saying something when you consider Queensland in the late 1960s to the late 1980s, or the recent run by Peter Dutton). It's going to throw the historically left-leaning SA into shock, and present a threat for all state and federal elections in Australia for at least the next 5-10 years, or however long it takes for global Trumpism to crumble. Pauline Hanson will be insufferable the entire time.
- Liberal Party and National Party will, in the slurred words of one poll respondent, "Receive an absolute shellacking."

#AusPol #SAPol #SAVotes #DemocracySausage

Just voted early in the #SA
elections, thinking it would be quieter.

But no, a total circus. Running the gauntlet of what looked like a dozen parties, most unheard of, with the Libs acting as guardians of the threshold into the hall.

I suppressed my usual desire to shout abuse at One Nation and passed quietly through.

Trouble is, there is only one party you can put last.

No #democracysausage available, either, despite the crowds.

Just voted in #saelection #greens But no #democracysausage available

Australiรซ heeft de 'democracy sausage', goede doelen eten bij de stembureaus.  Wat zou dat in Nederland moeten zijn ? Hartig pannenkoekje ? Stroopwafels ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_sausage

#verkiezingen #democracysausage

Democracy sausage - Wikipedia

Just voted in the municipal elections, and got a #DemocracySausage, Dutch style!
To those going out to vote tomorrow, remember to reward yourself with a #DemocracySausage afterwards! It's a great Australian tradition that we should bring here too.
belatedly dosing up on a bit of democracy-pron... https://iview.abc.net.au/show/annabel-crabb-s-civic-duty/series/1/video/DO2441H001S00 ... & silly damn dopey dropbear that i am, find myself weirdly getting wet eyes at various junctures.

#auspol #aec #democracy #democracysausage
Annabel Crabb's Civic Duty: S1 Episode 1 Fairness

We begin with one of the enduring oddities of the Australian electoral system - preferential voting. Vaunted by mathematicians and theorists as a fairer way of voting. Adopted, uniquely, by Australia in 1918.

ABC iview
fabulous #DemocracySausage today -- you'll never guess the topic! ๐Ÿค”

https://shows.acast.com/democracy-sausage/episodes/fifty-years-on
Fifty years on | Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny