Voting Overseas

As soon as I arrived in the US and found a fixed residence I registered with the AEC as an overseas elector. (I had been very politically active right up to the time I left, so this was natural.) I remember filling out two different forms and, I swear, the second was to guarantee that I get ballot papers sent to me as soon as they're drawn up (making me a General Postal Voter). Yet when the last NSW election came around I waited and waited for the letter yet never received my ballot papers. (Don't anyone tell John Kaye that he didn't actually get my vote; he was so pleased when I told him I had registered to vote overseas. Besides, he got in without it.)

So this time I'm on top of things, I now realise that I need to ask them for ballot papers every election. But the problem is that I need another Australian to witness for me. The only Australian friend I had here is now living in Idaho. A few months ago I met an Australian professor in the French dept but when I emailed her the other day she replied that she'd moved back to Oz. An Australian friend in Pittsburgh said that he'd sign for me if I sent it to him but the witness is really supposed to watch you sign the paper. I didn't know what to do. (My worries were not helped by that same friend threatening to hold me personally responsible if the wrong party won through me not voting!)

Then last night, at the French table we attend every Tuesday, I met another Australian. I felt just like the Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek when he finally met another bunyip! So now it's all sorted out, we're going to sign each other's forms and we'll both be able to do our civic duty. (We were in complete agreement when we said that we wouldn't want Australia to have a voter turnout like the US -- 40-odd% -- and then a president elected on less than 50% of the vote because of the first past the post system. "20% of the country voted for him. Wow, what a mandate!")