I voted for the first time today, at Box Hill Town Hall, through early voting. I had gone the night before at around 6:45pm. Upon arriving that night, I was immediately asked which suburb I lived in, then given a ‘Labor for Menzies’ and ‘Liberal for Menzies’ flyer from two lobbyers. But then I saw the queue and was like I’ll come back another day, and one of them responded yeah it’s pretty chill during day time. So I came back the next morning at exactly 8am on my way to university.

The first question I was asked was whether I lived locally. I answered no because I’m from Menzies, but apparently that’s locally. They have boxes for Menzies, Chisholm, Kooyong and I think Deakin electorates at the exit of the pre-poll. Box Hill Town Hall is pretty centrally situated so I’m guessing a lot of people from different electorates would come to vote here.

Upon registration, I was asked only my family name, given name and address. Honestly, I thought that this was not a very secure system. They didn’t even ask my birthdate or for any ID to match my identity to my appearance - like I know the names and addresses of plenty of my friends, I could literally pretend to be them and vote on behalf of them (of course that’s illegal and I’d never do that, but hypothetically).

Whether Voter ID should be required to vote was a prominent issue a few months before the election. See this article. The typical arguments against were voter suppression, arguments for was election integrity. Apparently electoral fraud is also quite low in Australia. Personally, I think you need something more secure than just asking your name and address.

Anyway, they printed off the ballot papers, I voted and left. Was a good experience and was done in less than 5 minutes. No democracy sausages but I work Saturdays so can’t vote on election day. But a rite of passage nonetheless.