I Voted

[pebblerocker]

Massive numbers of people have voted in advance this election. Lots of reminders for people to vote NOW over the last fortnight. That includes my brother, who is travelling outside his electorate today. I am vanishingly unlikely to forget to vote and I like the atmosphere of election day. I like walking to the local school and seeing people coming in and out of the polling booth; it's one occasion to walk around my area and feel involved in things.

And I like making my mark with the orange pen and getting my sticker. The first time I voted in a national election I accidentally got some orange ink on my finger in the booth, and since then I've made sure to come away with a bit of orange on me so I really feel like I've done my bit.

Beautiful sunny spring day today, that's good for turnout, and it sounds like the youth vote is up a bit, so there's some hope for progress. We'll see.

Comments

[lilysea]

Which country? ^_^

Local council, state or Federal election? ^_^

Thank you for voting! ^_^ <3

[pebblerocker]

New Zealand, national election. We've had nine years of the same old same old, and change would be very nice.

[lilysea]

BTW, is voting compulsory in New Zealand like it is in Australia?

[pebblerocker]

No, not at all.

My partner is Australian and in the first federal election after he moved over here, he had to go to a Justice of the Peace and get his vote witnessed and send it over - and I think he had to go to the Australian consulate to get the forms in the first place - and after all that bother I think the paperwork didn't make it to Australia in time and he was fined anyway. But he's lived here long enough now that he's excused from voting there and can vote in NZ elections instead.

The whole concept of compulsory voting is strange to me, and non-compulsory voting was very strange to him the first time!

[spiralsheep]

You have an orange mascot and stickers! I hope your country and your people live up to your highest expectations (or beyond)! Go Team Pebblerocker! :-D

[pebblerocker]

The orange of the rubber fellow seemed to lean a little towards red in this printing of stickers... one can hope that's a sign! However we appear to have lost Mojo Mathers, our Deaf MP who did such excellent disability advocacy in her time in opposition, and I don't know what the heck has happened with Māori representation now - a massive shift away from the Māori Party, which will have results I don't understand as yet.

[vilakins]

I think some people who had supported minor parties voted Labour instead. I'm still hopeful for a Labour government. It's time we addressed povery, environment, housing etc, though it's obvious there are still a lot of people who only care about the money in their pockets. /rant

[vilakins]

I usually work issuing votes, and it's a long day (8am to 10 or 11pm) but I like the atmosphere too.

I really, really hope there's some change this year.

[pebblerocker]

I wish I'd realised earlier that I could help in the polling stations this election - I am still unemployed and it would have been excellent timing!

[vilakins]

I've worked on the day for years, job or not. A couple of elections ago, when I was unemployed too, I worked the the two weeks afterwards as well, doing recounts and checking at electorate HQ. I'm not sure they'd have as much work this time as a lot was putting all the people marked on rolls as having voted on one electorate master, and that's now done by scanning. It was a good lurk, though finding and removing all 6 votes a smart-arse student made was a right pain.

[pebblerocker]

Saturdays have almost always been work days for the last 9 years; I'm sure I could have taken a day's leave to do something a bit different during that time, but this would have been the ideal occasion.

For future reference: how much training is involved? Police checks or anything?

[vilakins]

I'm not sure about a police check and I can't remember what's in the declaration now. Yes, there's training whether you've got experience or not, usually about 2-3 hours to issue ordinary votes, and another couple if you're taking specials (people out of their electorate, people who've moved etc), plus more again if you're a voting place manager. I've done ordinary and special votes, but being a manager is quite involved with all the paperwork at the end of the day; I wouldn't do it. I offered to do advance votes but they had enough people here already, with only one place taking them, and the post-election check and recount is in Alexandra which is ridiculously far away (this is the largest electorate geographically in the country, I think). But if you have a compact electorate, you could go for any of those next time.