How long did you wait in line to vote? (Don't say who you voted for)
- Thread starter BusynMember
- Start date
Marguerite
Active Member
Andy, I think difficult child's lesson should be about the need for secret ballot, as well as the right to democratic freedom. Tell him a story about two class president candidates (or in an Aussie case, school captain candidates). One is popular, fair, somewhat conservative and seems a bit 'square' but has been a good support to a number of students. The other has a lot of very strong, pushy friends and has promised to pay each student who votes for him and to beat up each student who DOESN'T vote for him. You also know that if this second person gets in, your class will be a much less pleasant place. Now, who do you vote for, and how do you handle the problems around this?
The real answer is - your vote should always be secret if you want it to be. You can tell if you choose to, but it ALWAYS must be your choice.
Also talk to difficult child about why adults vote but children do not. What if there was a candidate who promised free lollies to all children who voted for him/her? The issues are complex and much more grey rather than obviously black and white (I'm obviously not talking about skin colour here - beside, there's no such thing as black skin or white skin).
It's good that difficult child is being so difficult about this - it gives you a foot in the door to teach him about the democratic process. Maybe give him a tutorial on the last few elections in Zimbabwe...
The lever thing has always puzzled me. We use paper for our elections. Some of our ballot papers are very complex and are literally the size of a tablecloth.
And waiting in line - on days when we have a table-cloth ballot paper it can take longer because there is a limited amount of space to spread out and fill it in. We have to line up to get our names crossed off (to make sure we don't double-vote and also to make sure we vote at all - compulsory) and that line takes the longest time. Usually it's minutes.
The rest of the time for us involves discussing/arguing with people handing out "how to vote" cards from various political parties (including the ratbag/lunatic fringe), chatting to friends and neighbours, buying from the cake stalls (run by various local welfare groups). Our elections are always on a Saturday, never mid-week. We do have the option of postal ballot but we also have to make sure that any new voters or voters who have changed address have got their details registered in time or their old details will be what's on record; for new voters it can be a big problem.
I also agree that early results shouldn't be released. It's a bigger problem in the US, I guess, because you have a much wider voting window than we do as well as (I think) a bigger spread across the time zones. Our biggest spread is Sydney-Perth, about 2 hours in time zones (3 hours summer time). So our eastern polling booths have closed at 6 pm when the WA ones are still open; with fast computer counting these days some eastern seats have been decided already while WA voting is still going on. Our networks get around this by not broadcasting early election results to WA, but the Internet has changed this. However, at least people in WA aren't getting bombarded by the news if they're not wanting it.
I think every country develops its own election system that works best, all variables taken into account. I'm not sure if the Aussie system could handle the weight of numbers you have to deal with in the US. But I'm sure our officials would come up with something ingenious - and it almost certainly would include a cake stall!
Congrats to all who voted - you now have earned the right to complain about whatever happens for the next political term!
Marg
The real answer is - your vote should always be secret if you want it to be. You can tell if you choose to, but it ALWAYS must be your choice.
Also talk to difficult child about why adults vote but children do not. What if there was a candidate who promised free lollies to all children who voted for him/her? The issues are complex and much more grey rather than obviously black and white (I'm obviously not talking about skin colour here - beside, there's no such thing as black skin or white skin).
It's good that difficult child is being so difficult about this - it gives you a foot in the door to teach him about the democratic process. Maybe give him a tutorial on the last few elections in Zimbabwe...
The lever thing has always puzzled me. We use paper for our elections. Some of our ballot papers are very complex and are literally the size of a tablecloth.
And waiting in line - on days when we have a table-cloth ballot paper it can take longer because there is a limited amount of space to spread out and fill it in. We have to line up to get our names crossed off (to make sure we don't double-vote and also to make sure we vote at all - compulsory) and that line takes the longest time. Usually it's minutes.
The rest of the time for us involves discussing/arguing with people handing out "how to vote" cards from various political parties (including the ratbag/lunatic fringe), chatting to friends and neighbours, buying from the cake stalls (run by various local welfare groups). Our elections are always on a Saturday, never mid-week. We do have the option of postal ballot but we also have to make sure that any new voters or voters who have changed address have got their details registered in time or their old details will be what's on record; for new voters it can be a big problem.
I also agree that early results shouldn't be released. It's a bigger problem in the US, I guess, because you have a much wider voting window than we do as well as (I think) a bigger spread across the time zones. Our biggest spread is Sydney-Perth, about 2 hours in time zones (3 hours summer time). So our eastern polling booths have closed at 6 pm when the WA ones are still open; with fast computer counting these days some eastern seats have been decided already while WA voting is still going on. Our networks get around this by not broadcasting early election results to WA, but the Internet has changed this. However, at least people in WA aren't getting bombarded by the news if they're not wanting it.
I think every country develops its own election system that works best, all variables taken into account. I'm not sure if the Aussie system could handle the weight of numbers you have to deal with in the US. But I'm sure our officials would come up with something ingenious - and it almost certainly would include a cake stall!
Congrats to all who voted - you now have earned the right to complain about whatever happens for the next political term!
Marg
