Gotta Getup

I changed my vote as I stood in the line to vote, is that a politician’s worst nightmare?

I didn’t want to hand the Liberal party a win by one seat, by voting for the Greens, giving the Greens the seat of Melbourne and denying the Labor Party the chance to form government. However, a man from Getup handed me a pamphlet, telling me how the parties stacked up on the major issues, as I walked into the polling booth.


I know that I say that I don’t care so much about the environment, as I don’t have kids and I figure the planet will last to, at least, the end of my lifetime. But, apparently, that may not be true, according the the environment guy handing out pamphlets in the line. Getup's pamphlet compared the polices of the major parties according to 10 main issues. When I saw how the issues stacked up, and most of them, but not all of them, were environmental issues, I had to rethink my idea. I do care about the Great Barrier Reef. I do care about renewable, preferably solar, energy. I do object to coal seam mining messing up our country, especially when it is to send the gas overseas. I do care about a fair and equitable tax system. I do care about people on welfare. I do care about pensioners.

If the Labor isn’t the party I want it to be any longer, the only way I can indicate to them that I don’t like their asylum seeker policies, I don’t like their environmental issues, I don’t like their tax issues, is not to vote for them. Short term fear of an Abbott gain, isn’t worth long term prevention of the Labor party swinging back to the left.

So I changed and voted for the Greens.

Sorry Cath (Botwell), so close again.

I numbered below the line in the Senate. I got to the end of the senate paper and I only had 96. Dam! So, I got another white paper and started again, thinking all the time, Why didn't I just put a 1 above the line like any normal person. I wanted to put the drug reform parties first in the senate and I hadn’t read up on how they were directing their preferences.

I found my mistake on the first white paper, which took some time. The cardboard polling booth isn’t, actually, wide enough to spread the metre wide senate paper out flat so it took an inordinate amount of time. I renumbered the second paper and came to 96. AH!!!! I scoured my numbers and found my mistake, two 49's and two 50's. My first correction was wrong, I corrected in the wrong direction. Bugger! So, I got a third white paper. I'm sure the rat-faced polling booth boy rolled his eyes and thought, this guy thinks his vote is special. I numbered out the third white paper and came to 97 finally. Thank the fucken universe! It took me an hour and a quarter to vote. I even had to get the fat chick attendant with the bad hairdo to sharpen my pencil.