Election Day

Today is the national election in Australia, and I have to vote. Australia has mandatory voting, so if I don't go, I get a whopping $20 fine. I don't want to get into too much trouble with the Aussies, so I figure I'll just do my Australian duty and cast my vote. Though, the system here is a bit different because you cast a vote for the House of Representative and a vote for the Senate. And, you can't just mark your box with an 'X' for your House of Representatives vote, you have to mark your 1st, 2nd, 3rd choice and so on until all the boxes have been filled out. If you don't, your ballot is void. I actually had to do a bit of voting research so I don't mess it up!

The two main contenders running for Prime Minister are Julia Gillard of the Labor Party and Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party. Currently, Ms. Gillard is the Prime Minister. Back in 2007, when they had their last national election, Ms. Gillard became the Deputy Prime Minister, but took over as PM back in June of this year when then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's popularity took a nose dive. So, even though Ms. Gillard is Australia's first female PM, she hasn't been elected by the people...just yet. We'll find out tonight if she wins.

Either way, it's pretty exciting that I get to vote in Australia. Yay democracy! (Please enjoy the picture of me after casting my vote...my first time voting in Australia!)