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Aug. 21st, 2010 03:53 pmMy vote today was a lot of fun.
First, Kaaron Warren picked me up from the library. She wasn't happy at the dalek that was preaching solid environmental values. It was not quite right. Anyhow, now we know for certain that daleks with Australian accents say "Sustainability" instead of "Exterminate." Everyone was posing with daleks. Hugging them. Looking for all the world like dalek-human wedding parties. Honestly, libraries aren't what they used to be...
Two-thirds of my class was AWOL. We think they suffered from acute election fever. It's a terrible disease.
We collected Kaaron's family, did the sausage sizzle (one of the joys of Aussie elections are the sausage sizzles, with choices between onion and no onion, meat or vegetarian) and Kaaron took first turn on the cake stall, N took charge of my portable whiteboard and the Buffy tin (with whiteboard markers) and Kaaron's husband and I went a-voting.
I queued. No-one gave me any leaflets, though the really cute Green leaflet-giver told me what a wonderful coat I was wearing (the wind is off the snow today, and he only had a jumper). This means that my total leaflets for this election number one. I think it's fated to become a paper plane.
Inside Majura Primary, I explained to the queue-directing official that I was from Canberra. She looked puzzled.
"Not Fraser," I added. Majura Primary School is in the electorate of Fraser (for those who need explanations).
"Oh," she said, "You're an absentee voter. Queue behind that lady there."
So I queued behind that lady there and my turn came quite quickly, given the amount of paperwork that lady there had to endure. While I was waiting I was curious to see what happened to a couple ahead of me, who were from Fraser, but not on the electoral roll. It turns out that there was no time to update the electoral rolls after the High Court decision on the closing dates for enrolment to vote. This couple were able to vote because of that decision, but had to be taken out back somewhere for their names to be checked. The moment they were out of sight, my turn came round.
"I'm from Canberra," I explained to the official. "There are no polling booths in Chifley, so I came here." She laughed. She thought it was as funny as I did. Especially the "I'm from Canberra." Because, of course, I was still in Canberra-the-city - just not in Canberra-the-electorate (I like to belabour my puns - it makes the suffering last longer). We conspired in completing the absentee form and she handed me the correct ballots. I went to the booth, filled them both in, and then revisited her to put them in my absentee envelope.
"Are you certain this envelope refers to you?" she checked.
"Of course I am," I said. "No-one else's would be quite so illegible."
She laughed again. I put my ballots in the envelope, sealed the envelope and put the whole thing in the ballot box. Then I went to help on Kaaron's children's school's cake stall. because this is election day and election day is much more fun if you spend a few minutes helping on a stall.
First, Kaaron Warren picked me up from the library. She wasn't happy at the dalek that was preaching solid environmental values. It was not quite right. Anyhow, now we know for certain that daleks with Australian accents say "Sustainability" instead of "Exterminate." Everyone was posing with daleks. Hugging them. Looking for all the world like dalek-human wedding parties. Honestly, libraries aren't what they used to be...
Two-thirds of my class was AWOL. We think they suffered from acute election fever. It's a terrible disease.
We collected Kaaron's family, did the sausage sizzle (one of the joys of Aussie elections are the sausage sizzles, with choices between onion and no onion, meat or vegetarian) and Kaaron took first turn on the cake stall, N took charge of my portable whiteboard and the Buffy tin (with whiteboard markers) and Kaaron's husband and I went a-voting.
I queued. No-one gave me any leaflets, though the really cute Green leaflet-giver told me what a wonderful coat I was wearing (the wind is off the snow today, and he only had a jumper). This means that my total leaflets for this election number one. I think it's fated to become a paper plane.
Inside Majura Primary, I explained to the queue-directing official that I was from Canberra. She looked puzzled.
"Not Fraser," I added. Majura Primary School is in the electorate of Fraser (for those who need explanations).
"Oh," she said, "You're an absentee voter. Queue behind that lady there."
So I queued behind that lady there and my turn came quite quickly, given the amount of paperwork that lady there had to endure. While I was waiting I was curious to see what happened to a couple ahead of me, who were from Fraser, but not on the electoral roll. It turns out that there was no time to update the electoral rolls after the High Court decision on the closing dates for enrolment to vote. This couple were able to vote because of that decision, but had to be taken out back somewhere for their names to be checked. The moment they were out of sight, my turn came round.
"I'm from Canberra," I explained to the official. "There are no polling booths in Chifley, so I came here." She laughed. She thought it was as funny as I did. Especially the "I'm from Canberra." Because, of course, I was still in Canberra-the-city - just not in Canberra-the-electorate (I like to belabour my puns - it makes the suffering last longer). We conspired in completing the absentee form and she handed me the correct ballots. I went to the booth, filled them both in, and then revisited her to put them in my absentee envelope.
"Are you certain this envelope refers to you?" she checked.
"Of course I am," I said. "No-one else's would be quite so illegible."
She laughed again. I put my ballots in the envelope, sealed the envelope and put the whole thing in the ballot box. Then I went to help on Kaaron's children's school's cake stall. because this is election day and election day is much more fun if you spend a few minutes helping on a stall.