Comrades,
I didn't mind being held up at the ballot box at the Canterbury South Public School hall by a couple of children who were being told by their mother what she was doing, i.e putting her ballot paper and the ballot paper of her elderly mother in the ballot box.
Young people need be shown and told about the Miracle of Democracy, in all its intricacies.
But, there was no talk as to why she was putting her mother's vote in the box.
The Electoral Commissioner's Supervisor didn't seem to mind
Nothing at all to say about making sure that Mum had voted the right way.
Secret ballot, be buggered.
Working that out comes later, kiddies.
I'd even heard mid-week that people are now offering to sell brand new unused "non-binding voluntary postal survey" forms viz-a-viz a question no-one could give a blue root about on e-Bay, so you can fill them in and send them back to the Strayan Bureau of Stats [ABS], at your leisure marked however you like.
I'd like to know how much you can get for them, as I spot a good business opportunity here as the middle-man; I could buy and then on-sell them as a job lot to whatever pressure group wants them, at the highest price, of course.
No principals involved.
What's to stop me?
Another judgement in the High Court?
But, at least it wasn't that hard to cast a genuine valid vote in the CanBan Local Govt. election - just scratch the number 1 in the box above the line for your preferred ticket out of four tickets with three candidates each, in a "ward" that sends three Councillors to council.
None of this being able to count up to at least 6 nonsense like you had to do at the last Federal Election - and still people elected Freaks to the Senate, but that's another story.
No siree, under the optional preferential Hare-Clark-McIntyre-Duckworth-Lewis system of voting being employed at this multi-member constituency election; the number one, or even a tick, or any mark at all in a box above the line would have to be considered by the scrutineers as a valid formal vote, if "the voter's intention was clear".
Simple.
It was widely expected that the Ward would vote along party lines, and that there would be a bit of a backlash vote against Gladys Berejiklian's rubbish Tory State Govt, as people are a bit antsy around these parts about the WestConnex "road to nowhere" project, as the rat-runners avoiding the new toll will clog our already super-busy local roads to a standstill and we'll pay for it, and, well, the rampant over-development of the joint is unstoppable what with the way land prices are; running dog capitalist speculators ruining it for everyone, once again.
There was some protest vote too, and a yearning for the status quo, given that the good burghers of Canterbury have been without any democratic representation whatsoever for a FULL 16 MONTHS, with the shop was being run by a State Govt. appointed stooge called an "Administrator".
Granted, the crony did put an interim stop-order on any new apartment complex DA's being approved along the Canterbury Rd there, until after the election - but he had no choice really - until they have worked out the Sydenham-Bankstown Development Corridor properly, which they haven't, and there's also been talk in the local butcher's shop [where all the good gossip is] that the ICAC is involved, and has its spies out sniffing around, asking questions and putting in wire-taps on dodgy developer's, former councillor's and former council officer's mobile phones, etc etc et al.
Some people aren't going to like it.
But, really?
16 months since the forced amalgamation of the two councils without a single elected official to complain to?
Absolutely outrageous.
But at least that's now been rectified and we did vote along Party lines, with Canterbury Ward electing Clare "Riffy" Raffan with 8,011 primary votes, with the second seat also likely to go Labor as they have 1.42 of a quota on the first count, and the third to be fought out between the Libs and the Greens on preferences.
Same as it ever was.
And then, the further out you go to the other wards, the more overwhelmingly Pinko it becomes.
It's a dead-set certainty that Labor will have a clear majority on Council.
I have no idea what kind of a voice Clare will bring to Council, but it is excellent to see her being elected, because, with those eyes, she would certainly give Julie Bishop a very good run for her money in any "Death Stare" competition.
You certainly wouldn't want to be sitting on the other side of the Council Chamber from her, because if the death stare didn't quite work, Clare would just pull out her Star Trek ray gun and vapourise you.
But the Informal Vote was the big winner on the day, as punters also displayed the usual amount of 'care factor'.
Folk love to vote in compulsory elections, but when they turn up at the polling place, they traditionally don't like being told what to do.
That's part of the beauty of it.
You are perfectly entitled to write on the ballot paper "I am sorry, but I could not give a flying-fuck about this".
The informal vote across all five wards was as follows:
26.69%, 25.66% , 24.28%, 17.63%, and 15.73%.
On that measure, at least three Informal Councillors should have been elected.
In the meantime, the Good Lady Wife drew my attention with a sniff of contempt to some really crazy weird-shit going on across the Harbour, on the Leafy North Shore, where the former Howard Govt. Minister For Everything, the Rt. Hon. Philip Ruddock, has come out of recent retirement to be elected the Mayor of Hornsby at the age of 74.
He knows he'll look good in chains.
But, WTF?
However, that's of no concern of us; at least we Cantabrians have the sense to leave the election of the Mayor and the handing out of the bling up to the elected Councillors.
We won't have anything to do with that.
Of more importance, the P&C BBQ was doing a politically correct roaring trade on the Sizzle of Democracy, offering a wide election selection including a "gourmet sausage" on a roll, with complimentary fried onions and all the sauces including American Mustard, the "Halal sausage", also yr standard "bacon & egg roll" and even a "felafel roll", hot damn, with a cupcake stall to finish.
Making a killing, they were.
It was pleasing to see that the Pinko vote was not influenced at all by the "bogus, offensive election material", which was described by local Labor MP, Linda Burney MHR, as "homophobic, racist & disgusting", being widely circulated at polling booths in the district, which strongly advised people to DO NOT VOTE LABOR, otherwise their children would start learning how to sponke their monkeys, heaven forbid - never mind that voting Labor would also turn your children into homosexuality.
Good God, can't have any of this monkey sponking business going on, otherwise it will all end in tears as the Yoof of Today suddenly start going blind en-masse.
Everyone knows what happens when the primate is poked at the polls, but hasn't teaching kiddies how to sponke their monkeys been outlawed in Govt. Schools for a long time now?
Ahh...ya gotta love The Miracle of Democracy...even pansexuals can get elected now, you know...
I did like the middle aged-bloke who appeared to be of Greek ancestry [the dominant ethnic origin of the second wave of early settlers of the district], dressed in the full regulation Saturday non-designer grey track suit pants and top, wearing thongs, sucking feverishly on a can of Solo while smoking a bunger, and having a good-natured debate with some brave or foolhardy Liberal Party workers handing out how-to-vote cards.
The only thing I overheard him saying was "look, I just can't trust you Liberal people. All I can do is pray".
Photo: Francie M. Lawson
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