"How to vote" cards...

[edible_hat]

It's election day in Australia, and when I went to vote this morning I was virtually assaulted by peole handing out how-to-vote cards. Do other countries have these?

Outside the polling booth, people from all parties stand around and thrust flyers at voters. These flyers tell you how they want you to vote. Sometimes they look almost like official documents from the electoral commission, sometimes they're in party colours and have party logos, usually they're somewhere in between. They get very annoying and sometimes very aggressive (seems to be usually the ones supporting the incumbent).

Usually I just push my way past the card hander outerers without a word, but this time I said "no thanks, I brought my own". (having done my research last week, figured out exactly who I wanted to vote for, and written it down)


no funny stuff here, just a rant. The suck is on the part of the people handing out the cards, they're worse than shopping mall Amex salesmen.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Here in the U.S., it might be a violation of election laws to be handing those things out at the polls.

Instead, we get them in the mail, plus phone calls from the candidates and political parties.

[Gurndigarn]

Here in the U.S., it might be a violation of election laws to be handing those things out at the polls.

Instead, we get them in the mail, plus phone calls from the candidates and political parties.

No campaigning allowed within X feet of the polling places. And very few people try the "how to vote" routine, because of the inherint US "ain't nobody gonna tell me what to do" attitude. Not everyone has it, but enough do that the approach would be counter-productive. At least, the direct approach. USians seem to be highly susceptible to slick TV ads, unfortunately.

The automated phone calls are a nuisance.

[edible_hat]

We get all the crap in the mail, the phone calls, etc. too. By law they have to be a certain distance from the pooling place, they get as close as they can though.

I guess they're called how-to-vote cards because we have the prefferential system, the cards tell you who they want you to put second, third, etc.

[Gurndigarn]

I guess they're called how-to-vote cards because we have the prefferential system, the cards tell you who they want you to put second, third, etc.

Oy... and you're required by law to show up at the polling place, too... But at least it's not the most confusing election system I've ever seen. That would have been in South America, where there were so many political parties their advertising was aimed, in part, so that you would remember their party number. And the more radical parties would handbill entire building sides with their stuff. The communists were party #8, and IIRC, socialists were 15 and anarchists were 23. Now that I think about it, I'm fairly sure socialists were 15, but I'm not positive who #23 was beyond being a royal (so to speak) pain. The communists took first prize for the most handbills glued to public edifices, and #23 was the oddest ones.

[MadMike]

No campaigning allowed within X feet of the polling places.

How many feet would that be, and is that a state or federal law? Because since I've started voting, I've seen people handing out literature right outside of the polling place.

The automated phone calls are a nuisance.

No argument there. And most of the time, it's for people I wouldn't vote for if they were the only candidate running. (No lie, the asshole who kicked us out of our apartment ran unopposed for township commisioner, so I wrote in "Bart Simpson".) It's probably because of the party I'm registered under, but the only reason I registered under that party was so I would have an extra chance to vote against them in the primary.

I really should change my affiliation.

[jb17kx]

The funny part is looking at which candidate the various parties put last on the how-to-vote cards. One fellow, Neil Smith, running for One Nation in the next electorate over, was placed as last prefference on the how-to-vote cards of four other groups.

He and his party are flaming bloody racists though, so no surprise.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

We had some local politician dicksmack call my parents house at nearly 9pm Thanksgiving night.

Good Amerian money says he will lose. Badly.

[Jack7957]

How many feet would that be, and is that a state or federal law? Because since I've started voting, I've seen people handing out literature right outside of the polling place.

New York it is 100 feet.....

(c) Cause the distance markers to be placed at a distance of one hundred feet from the polling place.

Distance markers are signs, usually about the size of a canidates sign, placed outside the polling place. Canidates are not allowed to place their signs or have their people any closer to the polling place than these signs. Where I go to vote, this means they are just past the parking lot for the polling place.

[Bella_Vixen]

Good Amerian money.

According to the news, there is NO good American money at the moment.

[edible_hat]

Apparently there were some fake how-to-vote cards handed out, mostly for the Greens putting anti-Green candidates second. (this is just hearsay, a few customers mentioned it to me at work but I haven't seen any official reports about it)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

According to the news, there is NO good American money at the moment.

It's good if it's in my bank account!

[Bella_Vixen]

Touche. Same here.

[sarahj]

I don't mind the people handing out how-to-vote papers. I just take one from each person and go in to vote. What's wrong with just taking their papers and recycling them later?

[the lawsmeister]

My wife got hassled by one of the people handing out flyers one election so she reported them to the officials inside. He went out and told them all to bugger off further away from the entrance and stop bothering people.