A few years back, not long after I reached an age where I had the supposed privilege to vote in Australia, I realised that voting was little more than an inconvenience. In Australia voting is “compulsory”, if you choose not to vote it’ll cost you 50 bucks (fine), so as a student I voted for the Greens because I thought Bob Brown was the least annoying party leader and 50 bucks was a lot of money to me in those days. I can’t say that I particularly cared for half the Green agenda, but hey, it doesn’t matter who you vote for (and in almost all cases a Green vote was essentially a Labor vote due to preferences).

The Australian election shenanigans viewed from my new outside perspective are far more entertaining than they’d be if I was still there and forced to indicate I had some preference for one buffoon over another. All I can think is that I pity anyone having to choose between the two dorks on offer (I think most “swinging voters” vote for the figurehead and not for the party, that’s why there’s so much ALP engine focus on “would you really want Costello to be PM?”). I’d be exercising my $50 right not to vote. A saving grace of the UK is that you’re not coerced into picking one ugly, old, lying pollie from another.

Anyway, much of what I think is summed up neatly in an old NYT article that Mr Dilbert linked to today Why Vote? (2005). I particularly like the parallel they draw to lottery tickets: “for the price of a ticket, you buy the right to fantasize how you’d spend the winnings — much as you get to fantasize that your vote will have some impact on policy.”

Anyway, please vote in whatever your next election is … deluded masses make the world go round.