The Victorian state election is on Saturday. Since voting is compulsory in Australia they offer early voting options such as postal votes or going to an early voting centre, which I did today at lunch time. This is actually the first time I have ever voted in person at a polling booth as I always do absentee ballots in the US.
The voting process is different than I am used to because there are two different ballots- a small ballot paper for the Lower House, and a large one for the Upper House. Also, since it is preferential voting, instead of filling in a bubble next to a name you actually number the candidates in order of preference. For the Lower House this is easy because of the small number of candidates, but for the Upper House there are numerous people running for office. This is why there are two ways to vote on that ballot- above the line, where you vote for a party (and then get their set preferences) or below the line, where you can number each candidate in the order you choose. To make my life easier, I voted above the line. The whole process was pretty painless, and now that I have voted, I can relax on Saturday and not have to wait in line in what is forecast to be rainy weather.
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