This year, despite my best intentions to heed the ACT Electoral Commission’s appeal to “Vote safe. Vote early” – as the vast majority of the ACT electorate did – I found myself waiting until today, Saturday 17 October, the official election day, to cast my vote.
It’s less due to procrastination (why put off till tomorrow what can be done the day after?) and more to do with tradition.
Since my younger child turned 18, almost eight years ago, the two of us have developed a custom of going to our local polling place together to vote on election day, whether ACT or federal.
In previous years, we’d meet at home, head to the local school, join the queue of voters, collect every ‘how to vote’ card thrust at us, each go through the voting process, then complete the ritual with a visit to the democracy sausage fundraising stall, possibly pick up some vegie seedlings from the P&C’s plant stall and maybe a hot beverage from the coffee van parked on site.
This year, because of COVID, there were no queues of voters, no how to vote card sharps in sight, and no democracy sausages.
It made for a very quick session of exercising our democratic right and responsibility.
So instead, to tick the final box, we headed to the nearby food vans in Phillip for a couple of breakfast burgers and a coffee. It might not have been a fundraiser for the local primary school, but with the year that our local hospitality industry has experienced, we were happy to give them our support on this very strange election day in this very strange year.
Tune into the ACT Electoral Commission website for the results as they come in.
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