It starts out in bold letters with the statement
"If you are an Australian citizen 18 years of age or older, you must enrol (sic) to vote"
At that point I tore off the part with my name and address intending to shred it.
Ken received a similar letter but was a bit more thorough in his reading of it and noticed that it also said:
"If you are not eligible to enrol, please complete the section below and return this letter."
"DO NOT DETACH"
OOPS!
So here's the thing: Australia has Compulsory Voting. You must be a registered voter if you qualify and you must go to the polling place on election day. Here's a site that provides a bit more information on this. http://australianpolitics.com/elections/features/compulsory.shtml
Now, about those U.S. elections that I read about. Neither Ken nor I received anything along the lines of a ballot. What's up with that?
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What I find interesting is "Division of Lingiari". What the heck is Lingiari??? Now, that's a funny word. As for your Palo Alto ballot - it's probably waiting for you in Ken's office mail if that was your forwarding address. Didn't you say they took forever to get mail to you? Or maybe it's lost in lingiari (another work for limbo???).
ReplyDeleteHere's the explanation for the name Lingiari:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Lingiari
We are both permanent absentee voters, and they usually send those out quite a bit in advance, and yes, mail is slow but we have received a couple packages in the last week or so.
Maybe expats don't qualify...