I'm totally exhausted today after a solid 14-hour day yesterday at the election. A lot of the work is low-key but the hard part comes when the counting starts. The Senate paper is the killer; the Tasmanian one was as big as a towel and we had to count them on the floor. Not an easy job for a team of middle-aged workers!
Still, it was a great day and I loved seeing all the Deloraine characters, coming out for a rare excursion to the big city. The farmers come in their workboots and smelling of the dairy, the oldies dress up for the occasion and first-timers nervously watch how everyone else acts. The party supporters outside shiver in their candidate's t-shirts and the local P&F takes the chance to have a fund-raising sausage sizzle. Democracy in action!
You can tell the mood of the electorate by the pamphlets they carry in. The Libs took no chances and had boxes to spare, the ALP ran out mid-afternoon and the Family First gave everyone a little sermon with their how-to-vote card. So many people came in with just the one pamphlet that we expected it would be a foregone conclusion. Surprisingly, at our polling booth, things were pretty evenly balanced between Lib and Lab, with a decent result for the local Green as well.
The hatred of Green politics is so intense in Tassie that we even had a Stop the Greens party standing for the Senate. They didn't get much support; the Pirate Party received more votes.
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