Australian elections are easy

America makes elections hard. For very political reasons.

In Australia, voting is compulsory. What happens with compulsory voting is that you must register your change of address to be sure you get to vote in your electorate. But otherwise, everyone is on the poll. If you don’t vote, you are fined. 

Voting is easy. It happens over two weeks. You can postal vote. There are rarely queues. The main voting day is Saturday, making it more available to more people. 

In Australia, we have preferential voting, which means that you vote in order of who you want to represent you, and if the first candidate doesn’t make it, your vote goes to the second candidate. It never hinges on one person.

It is not perfect. We need to remove all private money from elections, and electoral ads need to be factual and not a litany of BS. 

Democratic participation should be easy. And a right for all citizens. 

Otherwise, it is not a democracy. 

We might stop calling some of the countries that profess democracy to be democratic.

*Australia goes to the polls today. 

Photo May 17 2023, Article written May 3rd 2025