In less than 24 hours, Australians will head to the polls to decide who will run the country for the next three years.

The centre-left Labor Party is currently in power, with the centre-right Liberal Party (yeah, our conservative party is called the "Liberals", it's weird) challenging. 

Ours is a parliamentary democracy where voting is compulsory for all citizens 18 and over.

Any other Aussies gearing up to do their civic duty and grab a Democracy Sausage?

I feel like that's only weird to Americans, Lol. There's a number of parties in Europe which are Liberal and Centre or Centre-Right. The Liberal Party in the UK tended to be Centre and also had a coalition with Conservatives once though I would now say they're more left wing than current Labour, Lol. But I suppose it depends on how "Conservative" they are because if the Conservatives in the UK changed their name to Liberals I would LMFAO and from what I've heard the Australian Liberal Party is more like UK's Tories, Lol. But my basic point is that Liberal doesn't necessarily = Left.

Anyway, I think compulsory voting should be law everywhere.

Interesting
https://www.elections.wa.gov.au/vote/failure-vote

Is there an abstain option on the ballot, none of the above?
Can you leave the ballot blank?

Or are you forced to choose a party that you don't agree with if there's none for your liking?

I guess not, or it wouldn't have been for this stunt.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110218052948/http://noneoftheabove.com.au/about.htm

I changed my name from Geoff Richardson to Of The Above None on March 16, 2007. I did so because I wanted to emphasise at this election the fact that the two party system does not provide for the plurality of views which represents the Australian community.

I believe that a Parliament which contains its fair share of committed Independents can more adequately canvas all the issues from a non ideology-based perspective.

I have strong views on a wide range of issues but if elected I am committed to engaging with the electorate on all matters before casting my vote in Parliament.

Leaving the ballot blanc would work, voting is still anonymous in Australia I assume. So it would be added to the 'spoiled' votes pile.

Anyway there are other reasons against compulsory voting

https://irpp.org/research-studies/policy-matters-vol8-no3/

Our turnout was just over 65%, going back up thanks to Trump lol. If you want people to go out and want to vote, you have to engage with the public. Forcing people to make an unknowledgable / unwanted choice isn't making the results any more valid.



Anyway goodluck Australia, make the 'right' choice :)

Should iterate that it's compulsory to "show up and vote". - You can write penises on your vote and make it null and void if you so wish.

We have a preferential voting system which I would argue is better than most other democracies.


I of course voted several days ago because I am working remotely currently.

I'll have to look into this a bit more, because at first glance it does sound better than what we have in Canada.

I'm not ok with being forced to vote though. I don't care if I can write anything in and void the ballot. Forcing me to waste my time if I've concluded it's a waste of time, not only sounds anti democratic but will just piss people off. 

As to "validity", I agree, but this then also opens the door to things like a minimum age change.

Who really believes an 18 year old is wise enough and well informed enough to vote? They aren't now, and we weren't back then either. "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote", only really makes sense if you're forced to fight. If you've chosen to fight, that's simply your choice. There was good reason why min voting ages were higher in the past, or not even based on age, and while people may argue that, today, we're more educated and have more info at our fingertips, that doesn't necessarily make you more intelligent overall or less prone to being fooled in a world of free, instant social media, where reasonable consequences for those trying to fool you don't really exist.

I'm not for being forced to vote either, but I don't necessarily see any of these rules as black and white, right or wrong. As long as the majority decides and agrees on them then that's acceptable since it would be their choice, assuming they're free to leave as well if they disagree.

Three states in the U.S. use preferential/ranked choice voting in varying degrees, namely, Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii. Republicans, naturally, reject anything other than winner-takes-all, first past the posts. American conservatives were raging that the leader of the right-wing party that got less than percent of the vote in Austria didn't become their chancellor. As far as they were concerned, FPO's 28.85% of the vote percent of the vote entitled Herbert Kickl to the chancellorship as the "will of the majority" (plurality doesn't exist for these people. Even Trump's tally of the 2024 vote was a plurality rather than an actual majority.)

Don't get surprised by a party calling itself "Liberals" but not actually following on its historical significance.

Ideologically a party can move and change spectrum throughout the years. One of our most infamous government in my province were the Liberals, but in practice were hard-through conservatives.

Anywoo, Goodspeed and a fair and good voting session to y'all there.

Already did a postal vote.

Waste of time though as my seat hasn't changed parties since 1906 in my electorate lol. Career Politian seat for 20-30 year lol