This is what they say now in Australia.........


Eligibility basics

you are an Australian citizen, or eligible British subject,
aged 18 years and over, and
have lived at your address for at least one month.

If you are 16 or 17 you can enrol now so when you turn 18 you'll be able to vote.While the Australian Electrial Commission (AEC) only runs federal elections, the action taken by completing an AEC enrolment form is applied for federal and any relevant state, territory or local government elections.

If you don't register they ask fir a please explain. My brother does not vote, ( not on religious grounds) but every year they try to get him to vote.

I have always voted since I turned 18 as I was always encouraged to do so; but I have never told anyone who I vote for.

Allan

Thing is, what if out of all the party’s there is not one that has a manifesto that you agree a reasonable amount with, what do you do, vote for a party you don’t believe in, spoil the ballot paper, or give them all the finger, (If a great number of people gave them the finger then they would be forced to change their policy’s to suit what the people want, not what they want) now if they were to give the option on the ballot paper for none, then unless exceptional circumstances there would be no excuse not to vote.

As to postal voting, than this should only be allowed in exceptional circumstances, (Illness disability etc.) as quite frankly if you are not prepared to get off your arse to go down to the voting station you don’t deserve a vote.

It’s not quite so bad in the UK as it has a first past the post voting system which allows multiple party’s to stand, (Unlike the USA it costs very little to stand and the amount any party can spend is capped) so there will usually be someone to vote for, although it is not a legal requirement that you have to vote.

Bill

We have a two party perfer system, with a third being the "Greens" a minor party thqat can't hold power ever or even control anything, but can "side " with one of the major parties. There are many other extremely minor parties that try to get in as independants. Like the Sex Party or The Gun Party or The Marijuana etc, but most do not get enough to get in to hold a single seat, maybe three or so.

You can vote for the to hold the one major party that gets in to account on internal government votes for Bills or legislature changes but that is all they can do. This is not a bad thing but a good thing. Very different to the US style of Polotics I am sure but ours is based on the UK version to some extent.

Bot not to vote helps no one but to vote for someone even an independant will somewhere down the track.




Allan