If you’re one of those people still grappling with your choice for the federal election, don’t let the prepoll numbers upset you.
The media, in its usual tendency to exaggerate, has been highlighting the large number of people who have already voted.
That’s about four and a bit million by the time prepoll ends tonight.
And if you add applications for postal votes – about 2.5 million apparently – that takes us to a ballpark figure of six million voters.
But, and that’s a big but, with more than 18 million Aussies registered to vote, that’s still only one third of the total.
In other words, tomorrow, May 3, which is election day, 12 million of us will still do the traditional thing and pop down to our local primary school, run the gauntlet of the volunteers with the how to vote cards, and eventually do our democratic duty.
We may even bite into a democracy sausage if a local community group takes advantage of the event and sets up a sausage sizzle.
But we will also bump into people who live down the road from us, and some of them may be handing out for one of the candidates – which can sometimes be a surprise: gee, I never thought this person would be leaning that way, politically speaking.
Election day is a great reminder of our general freedoms, something that is not enjoyed in many other countries around the world.
Nor will you see military or police personnel stationed around the polling place, as you do in many countries.
As for the actual voting by each of us, well, this publication would never presume to tell readers which way to go.
It’s hard enough deciding what to do, from choosing the party you want to form government, to the local candidate you feel will best represent you and your family.
And that’s before we take care of the Senate paper.
But a bit of advice: if you haven’t made up your mind as you walk past the tireless volunteers offering you a how to vote card, be kind and take one from each them.
There’s no harm, even if you’re taking one just to be nice; courtesy costs nothing, even on election day.
Good luck to all of you, and maybe we’ll see some of you at a polling place around Campbelltown.
