Today is election day in Australia. Voting is mandatory. There are 3 or 4 parties in the running but it's really all about The Big Two -- Labour (left-leaning) and Liberal (right-leaning). It's been interesting to watch as an outsider.
Things Are Different Here Observation #4
One of the things that's different (and delightful) is that all TV political advertising had to end at the end of the day Wednesday. There's been no political ads on TV for the last two days.
Now, that meant that on Wednesday night, every other ad was a political ad. It was kinda overwhelming, especially since they kept running the same 2 or 3 ads, 20 or 30 times within one TV show.
Yikes.
Things Are Different Here Observation #5
They also have an interesting, and I think every effective, ad to encourage people to take voting seriously. Since voting is mandatory, people have come up with lots of ways in the voting hall to indicate that they'd rather not be there and don't give a rats patootie about politics or voting.
The ad explains -- in a very straight-forward and easy-to-understand way -- how to mark the ballots. You have two ballots. On the "white" ballot, you can number the candidates 1 - infinity based on your preferences. Or you can vote a straight party ticket by just checking their box. I forget what the options are on the other ballot.
Things Are Different Here Observation #6
Also, since the other 2 or 3 parties know that they can't win a majority of seats in Parliament, they're pretty straight-forward about being "spoilers" or about their role as coalition builders. It makes for much more interesting political ads.
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