Polled over
Working as an "election official" at a polling booth in the Balmain electorate for the NSW State election wasn't just a nice way to make a bit of cash for a days work... it also provided thrilling insights in to the following;
a) the complete lack of knowledge most people have about politics and the way in which the democratic system functions (even in an electorate with a high proportion of university educated professionals). This also includes people actually working at the polling booths, who frequently gave voters incorrect information about how to vote, what the different papers were for, and had no clue themselves.
b) voting is for everybody... that includes idiots, assholes, cranky old people and crazy people reeking of booze who spent all day drinking in a seedy bar and declared it loudly over and over again while I was trying to issue their ballot paper
c) counting things is boring, especially when it's not money
Some of the classic moments included dealing with people who when asked for their surname, would give me their first name.
"Good morning, surname please?"
"Barry"
Find Barry in electoral roll.
"first name?"
"Oh nah Barry's me first name. Barry Jones*."
Then have to find Jones in the electoral role while Barry grumbles about how long it all takes. This happened sooooooooooo many times.
Or people that would say a surname.... I would ask how it was spelt... they would say "oh, the usual way". Spelling Smith Smythe is not usual.
Or the people who didn't understand the question "are you enrolled in this electorate?" that they were asked in the queue. So they would get to me, make me search for their name, get shitty when it wasn't on the roll and rant about it for ages about how they had voted a million times before. When I ask where they live, they would answer a suburb that was sometimes as far away as Bankstown.
Another classic moment was a young gentleman who when handed his ballot papers, looked at me stunned and asked "so like how do I know what their policies are and stuff?".... I was gobsmacked, but withheld making a comment suggesting that maybe he should have taken notice of some of the media saturation coverage in the past few weeks.
Most people looked completely shocked to be handed two papers.... not just because of the size of the upper house "tablecloth" paper... but because a lot didn't seem to know there was an upper and a lower house.
Counting the papers was also interesting. One person (I assume a young gentleman) had drawn a giant picture of a penis and wrote "I have the biggest dick in the world" across the senate paper. I wonder if he realised it's an anonymous vote?
Another person wrote across their paper "this is such a huge waste of paper and is so bad for the environment". They then didn't vote. Maybe putting 1 in the box for the Greens would have made it less of a waste of paper?
A vote for the Fred Nile Christian Democrats was accompanied by a senate paper covered in quotes from the old testament. Freaky.
Ah, democracy.
*names changed to protect the stupid
a) the complete lack of knowledge most people have about politics and the way in which the democratic system functions (even in an electorate with a high proportion of university educated professionals). This also includes people actually working at the polling booths, who frequently gave voters incorrect information about how to vote, what the different papers were for, and had no clue themselves.
b) voting is for everybody... that includes idiots, assholes, cranky old people and crazy people reeking of booze who spent all day drinking in a seedy bar and declared it loudly over and over again while I was trying to issue their ballot paper
c) counting things is boring, especially when it's not money
Some of the classic moments included dealing with people who when asked for their surname, would give me their first name.
"Good morning, surname please?"
"Barry"
Find Barry in electoral roll.
"first name?"
"Oh nah Barry's me first name. Barry Jones*."
Then have to find Jones in the electoral role while Barry grumbles about how long it all takes. This happened sooooooooooo many times.
Or people that would say a surname.... I would ask how it was spelt... they would say "oh, the usual way". Spelling Smith Smythe is not usual.
Or the people who didn't understand the question "are you enrolled in this electorate?" that they were asked in the queue. So they would get to me, make me search for their name, get shitty when it wasn't on the roll and rant about it for ages about how they had voted a million times before. When I ask where they live, they would answer a suburb that was sometimes as far away as Bankstown.
Another classic moment was a young gentleman who when handed his ballot papers, looked at me stunned and asked "so like how do I know what their policies are and stuff?".... I was gobsmacked, but withheld making a comment suggesting that maybe he should have taken notice of some of the media saturation coverage in the past few weeks.
Most people looked completely shocked to be handed two papers.... not just because of the size of the upper house "tablecloth" paper... but because a lot didn't seem to know there was an upper and a lower house.
Counting the papers was also interesting. One person (I assume a young gentleman) had drawn a giant picture of a penis and wrote "I have the biggest dick in the world" across the senate paper. I wonder if he realised it's an anonymous vote?
Another person wrote across their paper "this is such a huge waste of paper and is so bad for the environment". They then didn't vote. Maybe putting 1 in the box for the Greens would have made it less of a waste of paper?
A vote for the Fred Nile Christian Democrats was accompanied by a senate paper covered in quotes from the old testament. Freaky.
Ah, democracy.
*names changed to protect the stupid
posted by Ashlee at 8:36:00 pm
2 Comments:
It was the "voting is for everybody" bit that really hit me. Standing in line with people who can surely not have had the mental capacity to digest the information being presented to them, one can only HOPE they gave donkey votes.
Meanwhile, as I was lining up, one of the officials asked if an older lady could move in front of me. Fine, I said. She had a scraggly beard, afterall. Anyway, after before she had realised she wasn't there to pick up the prescription or put on the weekly lotto ticket, three hundred thousand senior citizens pushed in in front of me. Thankfully a rather hip young lady at the next table over saw what had happened and sorted me out.
lol, so true! Especially about the countereffectiveness of the "waste of paper" comments! But despite the frustrating aspects of the job, (which you outline so humourously!), I did find myself last saturday wondering how these people managed to get the job in the first place. I am prepared to tolerate the oldies, crazies and idiots for a day, if it means I can earn a little extra dosh. So my question is, how did you get the job?
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