impressions on voting

[ljplicease]

So I really like the preferential voting system that they have here. When I lived in New York, I pretty much voted for whom I wanted to win, not for whom I thought was the lesser of two evils anyway, but now I can actually do both! The downside to the Australian system is that you are more or less voting for a party and not a candidate (especially if you candidate is in the cabinet, where he or she can’t really even vote in the interest of his or her own electorate if it goes against the government), but at least there are more viable parties here. The actual process of collecting ballots seemed more chaotic here, and I missed the curtain that gave me better privacy when I voted in 2004 (I don’t think anyone was watching over my shoulder, but still). Voting is still exciting for me, I think because I’ve only done it twice. It’s kind of dorky, but I’m tempted to vote in the 2008 US presidential election because I enjoy being part of the process. I decided on principle that I would only vote in Australia since that is where I live now, but now I must confess I am thinking about it again.