on voting

i just went down to the local community hall and voted. In the past fortnight I'd lost interest in the campaign because of a sense of inevitability: it seemed jh was going to be around for another sentence. But when I held the two paper slips in my hand, it felt important. I didn't feel important ('She's here, everyone! She's here!' they cried), but the act of voting did. I felt an active participant in that abstract thing, a 'democracy'. In the shoddy cardboard booth I paused and mentally weighed up again what a vote for x would mean and what were my other options. (I couldn't lean and rest on my elbows because the booth might have collapsed, which would have caused a rucus in the hall and coloured my voting experience with an embarrassed-hue; also I'm a bit too tall for leaning on its shelf; so I stood and gazed down at the papers.) And then I marked the boxes and folded the white elephant and posted the right bits in the right boxes (also wondering why they can't make the forms look a little more formal and less like a local school ballot? This is a federal election, folks!), and walked back out into the sunshine, ok, smiling a little self-righteously at the new comers because I had now voted. But the point was the experience reaffirmed the process.

Although, now that I type this, I wonder - is this a sneaky feature of the system? It makes you feel like you are empowered, but then results end up being decided through preferences and margins and god knows what else. Hm, this could deflate that sense of participation. But still I can't wait for tonight. Have been invited to the big liberal do, but (1) scared i might get beaten up by cheering or wailing at inappropriate times, and (2) feel a little unsure about it morally, so don't think i'll go. (Though if I do i'll take my camera to get some green-room shots). Not sure when the seat of Adelaide will be called; today's rag said the Worth might end up relying on postal votes to secure her seat - so I presume that means we might have to wait until sometime next week...