Over to you... voters
‘ Because I like her’, ‘because I like him’ and ‘ I dunno!’ That was the depth of reasoning three grinning first-time Wimmera voters provided when randomly asked at an early election polling booth why they had voted a particular way.
The response from the teenagers, while far from unexpected, provided insight into how different motivations were for the multitude of sectors voting in this year’s Federal Election.
Some voters will march to the booths on Saturday, if they haven’t already, armed with steely resolve about having their say on who should or shouldn’t represent them.
Others will ponder heavily over the best course of action, anxiously hovering their pencil over candidate boxes and contemplating which individual, party or philosophy best reflects how they want to be governed.
Some might want to champion or shoot down a specific cause, some might vote based on a belief of what’s best for their electorate and others what’s best for our national interests.
As always there will be champions for the money generators and champions for the battlers.
And yes, some might feel their vote is pointless and tick a box under sufferance or avoid ticking a box altogether.
We remind these people of the efforts of people in the past to simply win an opportunity to vote.
What the random teenage responses in Horsham reinforced, despite all the lead-up policy speeches, debates and cut and thrust of political campaigns, that simply having some form of human connection can win a candidate votes.
‘Because I like them better than the other one’, is probably a more common reason behind the masses launching people into or toppling them from power than political parties would like to imagine.
This has probably led to the clichéd ‘kissing baby’ or ‘crying candidate’ political strategies.
The reality is we must make informed choices, and in our electorates we have a good chance of having a significant say.
Mallee has 13 candidates, offering a variety of voter choice, and Wannon also has an interesting candidate mix.
We forgive, to a point, the lack of experience in our youth for many of them having a blasé approach to the election.
At the same time we urge everyone to consider, as democratic Australians, to make their vote count on Saturday.