[LINK] High Court case Re: Register Online to Vote Should be Legal

[Steven Clark]

On 25/07/2010 9:05 AM, Stilgherrian wrote:
> On 25/07/2010, at 9:08 AM, David Boxall quoted GetUp!:
>    
>>> that led to the situation we faced early week, where people had only one business day to enrol to vote.
>>>        
> That line from GetUp! is rubbish. People did not have "only one business day to enrol to vote", they had the entire time from the day they turned 18 or the day they became an Australian citizen. In the case of the latter, the AEC hand you an enrolment form along with your citizenship certificate -- their officers attend citizenship ceremonies to answer questions. You can enrol on the spot.
>
> I triggered a distinct backlash when I said this on Twitter, but such people who have "only one business day to enrol to vote" are not being disenfranchised, they have chosen not to enfranchise themselves through sheer laziness.
>
> Yes, it'd be handy to be able to enrol online, but not being able to do so is hardly some deep affront to democracy. It is merely an affront those with an inflated sense of entitlement.
>
> I actually had someone say, in support of online voting even, "if I am going to be forced to do somthing at least let me do it from the comfort of my home". I would also quote my reply, but Link is not used to such strong language.
>    

I've had almost exactly the same conversations many times over the 
years. While I'm not a big fan of the Howard Government's changes, the 
bigger issue - to me - is the apathy and-yet-also sense of entitlement 
that pervades society. I've met many who are proud that they're not 
enrolled to vote ... but can't understand why I'm less-than-interested 
when they whine about anything political or governmental.

I'm also not a fan of the pervasive myth that we elect the Prime 
Minister - we already have more than enough mythunderstandings about how 
voting works and what parliamentarians do, without continuing to 
promulgate myths about what our votes actually do.

-- 

Steven R Clark, BSc(Hons) LLB/LP(Hons) /Flinders/, MACS, Barrister & 
Solicitor

PhD Candidate & Sessional Academic
School of Commerce, Division of Business
City West Campus, University of South Australia (UniSA)
http://people.unisa.edu.au/Steven.Clark

Deputy Director, Economic, Legal and Social Issues Committee (ELSIC)
Community Engagement Board (CEB)
Australian Computer Society (ACS)
http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=acscas 
<http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=acscas>