Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: rbowman Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.usage.english Subject: Re: OT: Voting rights abroad Date: 24 Mar 2026 01:51:50 GMT Lines: 32 Message-ID: References: <10pa1dv$2d5dl$6@dont-email.me> <10pa6el$2f963$2@dont-email.me> <5PGcnQm5n5eAYiX0nZ2dnZfqnPWdnZ2d@giganews.com> <10pb5r2$2obtv$13@dont-email.me> <4luo8mxm8o.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <10pd71s$3grlr$1@dont-email.me> <1rs7tbh.gpe5481mficwpN%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> <10pgt0i$mdso$7@dont-email.me> <6slv8mxh47.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <1rs9smu.jbxbeu1db40cvN%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> <1rsbpkc.vc5k1918vdagaN%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> <10pm41a$2em2o$2@dont-email.me> <1774101640-12588@newsgrouper.org> <10ppvvc$3mqi2$3@dont-email.me> <10pr9ad$3cks$1@dont-email.me> <10psdva$hncu$1@dont-email.me> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net DsMuQyUhWqNV7Po/j5AOngHfCE0Xww4mSqg8aAo5CoZYObitRy Cancel-Lock: sha1:vH92HcnCVmpV+xZ+CwqZVLknEA4= sha256:jOTDoeJLI0eQH9dWXOUQzXHUVBNH45CU9uQ16W6a+9k= User-Agent: Pan/0.162 (Pokrosvk) Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:83843 alt.usage.english:1140548 On Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:13:59 +1100, Peter Moylan wrote: > On 23/03/26 22:48, Nuno Silva wrote: > >> Overall, a quite strong flaw of the current voting law is that there's >> no attempt to promote easier voting by allowing advance vote on >> weekdays, there has been an improvement allowing more voters to vote in >> advance, and to choose a different location, but that's also on a >> Sunday, and just that. > > Voting in advance has proved to be enormously popular in Australia. The > pre-poll stations are open every day, I believe. Initially you had to > have an excuse for voting in advance, e.g. you would be absent on > election day, but this wasn't strongly enforced, and now I think no > excuse is required. There was a South Australian election last Saturday, > and IIRC about one third of voters had voted early. The figures are > similar for feeral elections. > > The political parties are gradually learning not to save their policy > announcments until the last minute. This state has had general vote by mail for about 25 years. Like yours it was initially for people unavoidably out of state and had to be excused. It's proven quite popular and the ballots are mailed out well before the election. You sign an outer envelope so you can go to the website to verify your ballot was received and accepted but the counting is not done until election day. This leads to a flurry of robocalls from both parties reminding you to mail your vote in early. This is handy so when the candidate switches horses later you can't get your vote back for a redo.