From No Right Turn – New Zealand’s liberal blog:
Today I voted in the New Zealand general election. I did not have to queue. Instead, the whole process took less than five minutes: walk in, present my EasyVote card (a special ID issued by the Chief Electoral Office, to make it easy for them to cross me off on the roll), get a ballot, tick two spaces, and stick it in a box. At the end of it, they gave me a sticker. It was easy, quick, and painless. And comparing it with reports of American queuing for six hours to vote, have to ask: why do you make it so hard on yourselves?
One reason I’ve been given for the queues is that in some areas there was only a single polling place serving 15,000 people. This is astounding. My electorate has 49 polling places for 58,000 enrolled voters – or one for every 1,200 people (and I could have voted in any of them). Other electorates are similar. Where-ever there are people, or a school, we stick a polling booth. How hard can it be?
It gets better. I was actually travelling to Wellington today, and I could have voted in any of the polling places in any of the small towns I passed through on the way. It would have meant a trivial amount of extra fuss – booths only have rolls for their electorate, so it would have meant making a declaration that I was enrolled, and it would have meant a delay in counting my vote (as it would need to be checked against the electoral roll to see if it was valid), but it would not have been difficult. I would not have needed a form signed in triplicate in my own blood to prove that I couldn’t vote any other way.
Because it is easy to vote (and our elections happen on a weekend, and there is a statutory requirement on employers to give people paid time off to vote), New Zealanders do. Our turnout last election was 81%. Our turnout this time might not be so high – it fluctuates – but should at least be in the high 70’s. I compare this to the US turnout of 64%, and again ask myself: why do you make it so hard on yourselves?
Hey IdiotSavant, who do you think will win the election?
Here in Australia it is compulsory to vote: those who do not vote without a legitimate reason may be subject to a small fine. So turnout is not much of an issue.
Elections are also held on Saturday, with polls open between 8.00am and 6.00pm. For the elction held last year, there were a choice of 44 polling stations to choose from for the 116,000 voters in my House of Representatives electorate (equivalent to congressional district) – we could vote at any one we liked, or at any other polling station in our state or territory.
We do sometimes encounter small queues, but it would be unusual to wait for more than about 5 minutes to be able to vote.
Interstate voting on election day is possible at a limited number of polling places, usually in the state capital city.
I think the basic philosophy applied in both NZ and Oz is that it should be easy to cast a vote.
Answering my own question I can now say that it doesn’t look good for the governing Labour Government led by Helen Clark. With 94% of the polling places counted, the conservative National Party has won 59 of the total 122 seats to Labour’s 43. The Greens have 8 and the right-wing ACT New Zealand 5, more than enough when combined with National to give them a majority.
Oh shit!
There is one state in the US (Oregon) where all voting is conducted by mail. No one stands in line, no one has to show voter ID of any kind, anyone who votes can take time to study the candidates and the issues, and you don’t even have to use a stamp to mail it in. My wife and daughter used a ballot drop box by the library up the road a bit.
My state (Washington) is not far behind, with 35 of its 37 counties voting by mail already, one more scheduled to switch over next year, and I suspect it won’t be long until the final holdout gives in.
Voting by mail is not a panacea, and there are of course opportunities for fraud and abuse, just as there are in any other method of voting. But it sure beats standing in line only to have the voting machine switch your vote from Democrat to Republican without your consent or soetimes even your knowledge.