Local council elections

[dr nick]

are on tommorrow. I only found out about it this morning.

If there is one election where they should not enforce compulsory voting it would have to be these. Firstly the state government has the power to sack the councils, and has exercised this right several times in the past year or two. Secondly who knows who the candidates are? The vast majority of people just vote blindly for either the sitting member or the guy with the wierdest head.

Has anyone ever NOT voted whilst enrolled to vote? and if so, did you get a fine? And if you did get fined how much was it?

I'm tossing up whether or not i'm going to waste half an hour getting to a polling booth and wait in those queues. Especially considering our council was one of those that was sacked.

 

[Portia]

Never voted, never fined. Yes, I'm on the electoral roll.

I don't think I'll bother this year....none of the candidates have offered to do anything for me that I give a **** about, so **** it.

 

[grimlock]

The fine is $55. I only heard about it this morning from a colleague, otherwise I would be oblivious that it was on tomorrow.

 

[Bomber Spirit]

I know nothing of what the issues or candidates are in Baulkham Hills council. There's no way to make an informed choice.
I'll go down later this morning and put in an informal vote, but it's a bugger that I have to go to the trouble. Voting in local council elections shouldn't be compulsory - it's a joke.
Last time round I forgot to vote, and got a notice asking me to explain why. I wrote back and said I didn't know the election was on, and never heard back. I would have thought the electoral commission would have wrote to me this time to tell me it was on, but I haven't heard a peep out of them or from any candidates.

 

[pazza]

Doesn't anyone in NSW read their local papers? I mean surely, that would have been a good idea

 

[clucas91]

I heard the fine was like $12.55...that was for the last council election here on the coast anyway.

I don't vote either.

btw, if voting wasn't compulsory I would vote.

 

[The Passenger]

stupid ****en election meant i had to spend 25 bucks on getting a cab to the airport instead of the 59 cents it costs me to go by train.

god damn queue took nearly 40 minutes to get trough - and apparentely it only got worse.

and i really couldn't care less about who is mayor and who isn't.

 

[DaveW]

I was a bit aware that council elections were coming since the Sydney Morning Herald had turned into the Clover Moore publicity machine over the last few weeks. And no pazza, I don't read the local rags; I don't think they even turn up in my mailbox.

Of course that race is only relevant to those who live in the inner city, which I don't.

Didn't realise voting was compulsary til today. Got down to the place to see five independants on the mayoral ballot. So with no idea what they stood for (their HTV cards said SFA) I went the informal option with that one.

 

[Mog]

If there is an option to have mailed in your vote, just wait until you get the fine then say you mailed your ballot. I've never heard of anybody actually getting fine whent hey use that excuse, and I know quite a few people who have done it.

 

[dr nick]

Originally posted by pazza
Doesn't anyone in NSW read their local papers? I mean surely, that would have been a good idea

considering we don't have a local council, nothing was in the local papers, nor the mainstream papers nor the radio until the thursday or friday. There were also no billboards around the place of the candidates like you would expect when an election is coming up. We didnt even have to vote for a candidate, just a question if you want to reduce the number of councillers.

I knew about the Clover Moore inner city council elections but had no idea there were elections everywhere. Being a uni student also i dont have too much time to trawl through page 23 of the paper. Unless its on the back pages or the front 2-3 pages i'll most probably miss it.

 

[lioness]

Originally posted by Bomber Spirit

Last time round I forgot to vote, and got a notice asking me to explain why. I wrote back and said I didn't know the election was on, and never heard back.

That happened to me once, we'd just moved to a new place and I enrolled to vote, and soon after I got a letter saying I would be fined $50 because I didn't vote in a local council election! I'd only turned 18 a while before so didn't even know they had them, and I wrote and said so to them and never heard back from them.

 

[Squeak]

Regional board.