{"id":2674,"date":"2020-08-06T21:01:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T04:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/?p=2674"},"modified":"2020-08-06T10:23:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T17:23:56","slug":"vote-jan-selbourne-mfrwauthor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/06\/vote-jan-selbourne-mfrwauthor\/","title":{"rendered":"To vote or not to vote?\u2014Jan Selbourne #MFRWauthor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Parliament House, Canberra, Australia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Without mentioning politics do you vote? Why or why not?<\/p>\n

I have voted in every federal and state election since I was eighteen.
\nWhy? Because I am damned lucky to live in a country where I can vote. Australia is a parliamentary democracy, meaning the people choose representatives at regular elections.<\/p>\n

It is also compulsory. All Australian citizens over the age of 18 (except those of unsound mind or convicted of serious crimes) must be registered to vote and show up at the poll on election day.<\/p>\n

The main reason for compulsory voting was our laid back \u2018she\u2019ll be right, mate\u2019 attitudes. After Federation in 1901, the forging of the new Commonwealth was \u2018a bit troubled\u2019. The 5 million people spread around this large continent weren\u2019t interested in voting. The new parliament was concerned and the impetus from both major parties to introduce compulsory voting was the stark decline in voter turnout. From 71% of registered voters attending the polls in 1919 to just 59% in 1922. The worried politicians agreed something had to be done before they were out of a job!<\/p>\n

In 1924 compulsory voting became law and the impact was immediate. \"\"Voter numbers at the 1925 election rose to 91%. I bet there were sighs of relief within the hallowed halls of government.<\/p>\n

Elections are held on Saturdays. Absent voters can vote in any state polling place or apply for a postal vote. Mobile polling facilities are set up in some hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and remote areas.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are arguments for and against.<\/p>\n

The For team \u2013<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a civic duty comparable to jury duty, taxation, compulsory education. Parliament reflects more accurately the will of the people. The voter is only compelled to show up at a polling place, the actual voting is by secret ballot.<\/p>\n

The Against team –<\/p>\n

Infringement of liberty. The politically ignorant\u2019 and those with little interest in the polls forced to attend. It may increase the number of \u2018donkey votes.\u2019<\/p>\n

I personally feel giving up half an hour of my time once every three years is a small price to pay for a democratically elected government.<\/p>\n

And, if you don\u2019t want to vote, don\u2019t complain later.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jan Selbourne<\/a><\/p>\n

The Woman Behind the Mirror<\/a>
\nThe Proposition<\/a>
\nLies of Gold<\/a>\u2014Silver Historical for 2019: Coffee Pot Book Club<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without mentioning politics do you vote? Why or why not? I have voted in every federal and state election since I was eighteen. Why? Because I am damned lucky to live in a country where I can vote. Australia is a parliamentary democracy, meaning the people choose representatives at regular elections. It is also compulsory. … Continue reading “To vote or not to vote?\u2014Jan Selbourne #MFRWauthor”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1070,5,1246,1],"tags":[1073,1474,28,1476,1477,1471,1475],"class_list":["post-2674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-52-week-challenge","category-author-information","category-mfrw","category-uncategorized","tag-elections","tag-historical-fiction-author","tag-jan-selbourne","tag-mandatory-voting","tag-parliament","tag-voting","tag-voting-in-australia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9wA33-H8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2682,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions\/2682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}