by zound 17 Replies latest jw friends
Elections are coming up in Australia in a couple of weeks. Do most of you after leaving the 'truth' vote?
I've never been enrolled so as long as I don't enrol now I can get away with out doing it. The only temptation for me is to do it to spite the Watchtower and feel a little more 'connected' to society.
I enrolled because when I was 18 and studying with JWs, the sister said, "we have no problem with enrolling and have to obey the government, and they require us to enrol." So I did. Wish I hadnt while I was a JW.
So every election I dutifully filled out part C on the Apparent Failure to Vote notice.
I'm not sure what I'll do this election. I'm thinking of not voting, I mean, why break a lifetime habit? And in part C filling it out with a huge cult diatribe that'll put the people reading it off JWs forever. Probably won't though.
We are automatically on the Electoral Roll here in the U.K if we are residents. As soon as I left I decided it was my civic duty to vote, and I have done so many times.
A couple of local things I have missed out, because the candidates could not be arsed to publicise who they were, and what they stood for, lazy bastards, if they can't be bothered to do that then I can't be bothered to vote for them.
I have wondered if the local Elders would take action if they had proof of my voting, similarly with my donating blood, if they did, just think of the fun I could have giving publicity to their silly stance on these matters !
I recall an elder saying that there was information on voting and it would go up on the notice board. The tiny notice went up and as i failed to check it out very quickly it was removed. I believe it said something about a conscience matter.Could anyone shed some light on this please.
Don't you get fine herein Australia if you don't vote?
Yep but you can get out of it if you can provide a 'valid and sufficient reason' for not doing so when they send you the notice. You write a little spiel about it being against your religion and you don't hear from them til next election when you don't vote again.
Search for "George Carlin voting" on YouTube.
Note: Strong language.
Voting does connect you to the community, there are all sorts of local issues on the ballots here. Why would you not vote.
I vote. I also help politicians with their election campaigns. I'm also a volunteer lobbyist for legislative issues involving law enforcement.
I agree with Designs...local issues are important, and voting in these elections can be important for determining spending, local representatives and local issues. In the U.S., national elections are not as cut and dried. If you live in a state like CA or NY, you will not sway a presidential election with a non-democrat vote...same holds true in Texas if you vote non-republican. The system is set up that way, but I still vote for the local issues and candidates.
