Thanks Kabochache!
It seems so obviously wrong to have such strict limits on what constitutes ID. And the results of gerrymandering produce electoral maps that are downright farcical. As an outsider, it’s very confusing.
Y’all (or is it all’y’all?) should try to get elections simplified. We tend to get the campaigning done in 8 weeks or so (we get antsy if it goes on much longer than that… letters get sent to editors!). Simple paper ballot, cardboard screen to make it private, ID required but damn near everything counts as ID.
Here’s another thing that confuses me…long lines at polling stations? In 35 years of voting, I’ve never waited more than 5 minutes to vote. I know there’s 10x more of you down there, but this should be easily handled by correspondingly more polling stations. But I suspect this is just another way to suppress votes?
I acknowledge our elections are much simpler; we rarely have more that a couple of choices to make (plebiscites are very rare), and we have had some problems (robo calls misdirecting people to incorrect polling stations, for instance), and we do have some of the same “first past the post” problems, and our smallest provinces get more than their fair share of seats, etc.
Another big difference: we don’t really know when the next election will be unless the sitting government goes full term. Contrast that with your “every 4 years like clockwork” schedule. I wonder what effects that has on the whole process…
