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Hey hey
it's Saturday and this Saturday we are talking about voting because I
had to vote today. My daughters always complain about the fact that I
enrolled them all to vote when they turned 18 but it is the law.
Although if you look online you are told it isn't but my
son in-law was fined for not being enrolled.
All
Australian citizens 18 years of age and over must enrol to vote and
voting is compulsory in federal elections and referendums for
enrolled electors. Compulsory
voting for
national elections was introduced in 1924, following a pronounced
fall in turnout at the 1922 federal election.
Australia
is part of a small minority of just 23 countries with mandatory
voting laws. Only 10 of those enforce
them.
Registering to vote and going to the polls are legal duties for
citizens aged 18 and over, and failing to do so can result in a fine
and potentially a day in court.
Electors
who fail to vote at a State election and do not provide a valid and
sufficient reason for such failure will be fined. The penalty for
first time offenders is$20 and this increases to $50 if you have
previously paid a penalty or been convicted of this offence.
If
you are aged 70 or over you are excused from voting in council
elections. However, you will still be provided with a ballot pack and
are welcome to 0vote. Although in Victoria there is no upper age
limit.
Great law! Wished we had it in Canada!
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased that we all 'have' to vote not like some other countries who don't have to, then the people complain about who got into their parliament especially the ones that didn't vote, to me that's wrong.
ReplyDeleteI wish we had mandatory voting in the united states! :)
ReplyDeleteWow.... problem being, you get a lot of unqualified voters that way.
ReplyDeleteIan....Yeah I think it is a good thing
ReplyDeleteMargaret.....Me too, I often tell Tim to stop complaining because he wastes his vote
Rita.....I don't understand voting in the USA
Chris.....Maybe but who is qualified