The announcement has been made that Australians will be going to the polls on October 14, to decide the fate of the single question of whether or not they want first people's "Voice" to be added to the Constitution of Australia Act 1900, through the mechanism of a new Section 129 being added.
An information booklet has been sent out to everyone on the electoral roll, with the details of both the question in question and the case for both answers to that question "Yes" or "No"; so you would expect that the hideously toxic conversation around the Voice should shift from merely two sides yelling indiscriminately at each other, to the two sides yelling indiscriminately at each other about pros and cons. If you expected that, as I expected that, then you and I have grossly misunderstood the sheer level of stupidity in this country.
Stupidity is distinct from mere intelligence in that stupidity is when someone makes a deliberate choice to do something foolish, or act cruelly, or meanly, or say something illogical and not rooted in fact. Stupidity takes all of the available rational materiel from which a decision is made and then deliberately chooses the bad one.
The stupidity which has surrounded the first week of the Voice referendum campaign, has had to do with deliberately choosing to undermine people's faith in the process and accuse the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) of deliberately rigging the election. In particular, the "No Case" has accused the AEC of rigging the election, by daring to apply the law surrounding the mechanics of referenda and then advising that it will follow the law. Shock; horror!
What you need to know in order to make your vote count, is very simple. "Yes" is a valid vote. "No" is a valid vote. The No Case's accusation is that the AEC in applying the law, is likely to accept a tick but not accept a cross. Meanwhile the AEC's instructions has always been perfectly clear from the outset that what a voter should be is mark "Yes" or "No" on their ballot paper, and that way it will be guaranteed that their vote will be counted.
It's not like this is a strange or new phenomenon either. The last time that Australians were sent to the poll for a referendum question, was to do with the subject of whether or not Australia should become a republic. The ballot paper in that 1999 referendum question, looked like this:
I think that it is pretty obvious, that if you ask one question which only has a "Yes" or "No" answer, then you should expect to write "Yes" or "No" on the ballot paper. The "No Case" however, does not. The AEC has been forced to get out in front and run a social media campaign, which is downright ludicrous; simply because "No Case" has been throwing up confusion, even to the point of accusing the AEC of causing that confusion. I find it amusing that the AEC, slyly has put the "No Case" in its place somewhat.
https://www.aec.gov.au/referendums/
Completing a Referendum ballot paper
To vote, write either 'yes' or 'no' - in full - in the box provided on the ballot paper. You can even practice ahead of time.
- from the AEC website, as at 30th Aug 2023.
I think that it says an awful lot about the "No Case" if they genuinely think that the people who are likely to vote "No" are that incapable of writing "No" in a box. Just how much contempt do you have to have for the people on your own side of the political question, that you've accused them of literally being not intelligent enough to answer a simply "Yes" or "No" question with a "Yes" or "No" answer.
As you would expect, this issue which is deeply rooted in both xenophobia and outright racism in large sections of the "No Case", have tried to make the argument that recent migrants to Australia might not be able to understand the question put to them and would therefore be unable to write "Yes" or "No" in the available space. This conveniently dodges the fact that very recent migrants to Australia wouldn't be entitled to vote in the first place, and that practically every migrant who has come to Australia has an even greater degree of civic pride than then rest of the population who was born here.
However, let's play the Devil's Advocate for a second because apparently the Devil doesn't already own all of the lawyers and is so bereft of legal assistance that not even Legal Aid will provide with with adequate legal representation. Go on, if you don't understand that you should put a simple "Yes" or "No" answer then the space provided to answer a "Yes" or "No" question, then just put "X". Make your vote as deliberately ambiguous as possible so that the scrutineers will be tempted, nay forced, to put your vote into the informal pile and not count it. I do not understand why the "No Case" if they genuinely want people to vote "No", aren't going around trying to make absolutely sure that people put "No" in the box; instead of sewing the seeds of confusion.
Or rather, I do understand and its the same kind of motives which are used in the United States to try and undermine people's confidence in the electoral system; so that way people won't vote at all. The difference though, is that voting in Australia is compulsory; so that kind of nonsense simply doesn't fly here.
Look, if you want to vote "Yes" then write "Yes". If you want to vote "No" then write "No". It's not hard. You've got 44 days to think about the answer. The AEC has made the instruction so very obvious that every Billy Brown from Sydney Town and Maria Ngatha from Karratha can answer the question. They tell you on the top of the form to write either "Yes" or "No" and immediately under the box will be another instruction to write either "Yes" or "No". Do not let the "No Case" be proven right in their demonstrated contempt for you by getting a simple instruction wrong.
