MavEtJu's Distorted View of the World - 2003-05

Posted on 2003-05-23 20:12:30, modified on 2006-01-09 16:29:23
Tags: Memories, Politics, Elections

March 22nd, 2003. Naomi has just become a member of The Greens, the major minor party in Australia and volunteered for handing out pamphlets at the polling booth. And asked if I could help her in the first hours with it.

Of course, no problem. On the Friday morning before, I thought it would be somewhere in Cronulla. On Friday afternoon, I knew it would be somewhere in Sutherland. On Saturday morning we found out it was as far west of Sutherland as possible: Wattle Grove. A beautiful area, surrounded by bush. Occupied by the Australian military forces. We were in the middle of a military suburb, with names like Infantry Road and ANZAC Street. *gulp* You have to be brave as a No War party to go there... Or very new to things.

When we arrived at the polling booth (five past eight, it was further than we expected). We were greeted by an overwhelming amount of Labour and Liberal posters. Here we came with our two A-frame stands. But, it all turned out nice:

• Because all the space was already occupied we had to place our A-frame stands before all the others.
• We had to stand as the last ones in the line to hand out the how-to-vote pamphlets.
• And of course, with the smile and the accent of a Dutchman, it wasn't hard to win the hearts of these tough military guys and girls: "Hello, please vote for the Greens today!". Oh my god, they've already invaded our country!

Because the whole day went a little bit different than I expected (I expected Naomi to be in the neighbourhood, then somewhere in Sutherland which would be easy to do by train and in the end about two hours away by train from where we live) I didn't make any pictures. But I got a nice t-shirt out of it!

The result for our Menai-region was as follows (the first goal was to get at least 4% in all regions)

Legislative Assembly Progressive Results for 2003 General Election First Preference Results for the District of Menai Current as at 10:40:55 on 23/03/2003 First Preference Results Final for the Night Candidate Votes Counted   MEGARRITY * Alison - ALP 20,145  53.14% BYRNE Michael - IND 628  1.66% THOMAS Brett - LP 13,941  36.77% OZ Susan - ONN 794  2.09% EDGAR Gemma - AD 388  1.02% PALLADINETTI Tina - GNS 1,689  4.46% SU Thomas - UP 327  0.86% Total Formal Votes 37,912     Informal Votes 876   Total Votes 38,788   Note: an * after a candidates surname indicates they are the current sitting member for this District Two Candidate Preferred Results for the District of Menai Current as at 10:40:55 on 23/03/2003 TCP Candidate   MEGARRITY * Alison - ALP  59.81% THOMAS Brett - LP  40.19%

Thanks to the friendliness of the people at the polling booth, the ones from the Labour and Liberal party and the people voting, we had a great day!