Today's election - the punters speak

“The PDA thing at Curtin crashed when I went to vote this morning! … He said (jokingly I think) that the whole election might be null and void if he turned the gadget off,”

When I voted last Monday I watched the PDA process closely – when my name was confirmed it immediately connected and downloaded that information. So it seems nothing retained in the PDA to be lost. Surprising that the booth staff weren’t fully briefed on that sort of thing to prevent such misinformation.

And Astrojax, that is how the PDA “would have told me if you had”.

i was a bit saddened at the registration desk, where the lovely woman tapped the first letters of my name into a handset and found my address and smilingly handed me a ballot paper. i added as she handed it to me, ‘and i haven’t voted before in this election.’ she just raised her wearied eyes and smiled again, saying, ‘this would have told me if you had.’

i miss the chance to deny you might have already voted.

then i bought four books and a sausage sandwich at the fete the nth ainslie school had put on.

Calwell had coffee.

I rest my case.

But errgh, casey cresent, and for that matter were street are STILL plastered in signs. i love how joy burch’s ..friend? was going on here about how all of her signs have been stolen? i think they’ve all ended up in calwell today… O.o

No dramas at Conder Primary – went around lunch time (timed it so the BBQ would be my lunch of course) and didn’t have to wait at all. All party volunteers were definitely 100m away and were simply sitting on the side of the road waving signs etc.

There was one guy outside the 100m at Macgregor sitting in the shade. I almost yelled out at him not to bother, but he got up and headed toward me before I could say ‘no thanks’. Didn’t even see what party he was for.

No one in line either – compared to the federal election last year where I had to wait in a line of 20 or so.

123qwe said :

In and out in a couple of minutes at Red Hill Primary.

100m rule is a classic, those folks standing at the side of the road, desperately wanting someone to approach. No chance!

An inaccurate look into the mind of the volunteer.

All smooth at Gowrie Primary. Nobody in the 100m zone. A fete-like atmosphere – sunshine, a breeze, happy people, kids running about and $3 bacon, egg and onion rolls ftw. If somebody had fairy floss it would’ve been perfect.

In and out in a couple of minutes at Red Hill Primary.

100m rule is a classic, those folks standing at the side of the road, desperately wanting someone to approach. No chance!

Voted at Lyneham Primary, only problem was there was no parking ~1:30pm when the fete they were throwing was in full swing, so I went went back around 4pm on the way home and it was no problem. The 100m zone seemed to be honoured, with all the propaganda set up well away from the voting area.

PDAs seemed like a good idea, hope it was properly implemented.

smee said :

Slightly bemused at the Windows Mobile PDAs being used to check the roll. Typing people’s names crouched over the desk on tiny screen with a small stylus isn’t how I’d like to spend my day but at least it didn’t crash when we were there.

The PDA thing at Curtin crashed when I went to vote this morning! I suggested to the guy that he should turn it off and then on again or if that fails throw it at the wall very hard. He said (jokingly I think) that the whole election might be null and void if he turned the gadget off, he didn’t comment about my second suggestion. I told him that would be a real shame. After a few minutes he managed to get the attention of a supervisor who immediately rebooted the gadget, but it still failed to work so she produced a replacement one that did function correctly. The original polling guy thinks that maybe because the PDA had a heart attack because I was from a different electorate.

There were no pollies at all at Curtin that I saw, which was good. The other good thing was that there were some yummy homemade cupcakes for sale in the foyer, I think they were raising money for the school.