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November 17, 2007
The Federal Election is Next Week
This time next week the poll booths on the east coast will have long closed and counting will have begun in earnest. But still there is a great deal of speculation and misinformation being spouted around the potential result. For those in the know, this is a no-brainer, but ABC's Antony Green is still the most articulate and thorough of political statisticians and historians, and his 2500-word summary of the election situation and what needs to happen for either a retention or change of government next week is probably the best common-language summary. Then if you wish to hear more debate and exploration of the policy issues in the forthcoming election, perhaps you should visit YouDecide2007, the On Line Opinion and SBS joint venture, including a weekly webcast, blog and articles covering the final days.
I encourage all voters to be informed about the forthcoming election, and to post an informed vote. Frankly, I don't care how you vote. What I want to be sure of is that you are not making your decisions based on inaccurate perceptions or misinformation. Please be *sure* of what you are voting for, and don't just vote the way your parents or friends expect you to vote. Because every vote counts. And a misinformed vote can mean that the rest of us pay for your ignorance.
EDIT: Thanks to Barry for the info that YouDecide2007 is in fact a JV between On Line Opinion and SBS, not OLO and The Australian!
Posted by jj at November 17, 2007 6:13 PM
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The Australian isn't involved, it's SBS. The OZ has a separate election project with the same name (that they launched months after we went live.)
Posted by: barry at November 18, 2007 11:27 AM
I have been ignorant for most of my life, and of course have always paid for the consequences...
It is so true that votes are important... and I think the current ad by the electoral commission really highlights it correctly. I do not see that everyone sees the deeper side of what an election truly is...
All the bits that happen around it are all just window dressing... features... rhetoric...
As elections go, this one has been quite boring...
and good God are we there yet?
What an electiion truly is... the hallmark of democracy. Many lives have been given to protect YOUR right to it, and many are being forfeit for the right to have it. It demeans the honor of those who went before not to give a small thought to its roots, to the honor of its origins.
So dont cast your vote lightly, think hard of the values for which you are voting. Frankly, I have not seen any stand out across which I am truly swayed, and I hate the thought of vote one way because the alternative is worse than we are...
Largely, I will be content to cast my vote and head for a quiet drink in a pub somewhere, and reflect on how lucky I am that I live here and not in Iraq...
Posted by: wile1one at November 21, 2007 1:51 PM
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