If You Haven’t Got Your Marriage Survey By Now, Someone Might Have Stolen It
Things are going *great*
Yesterday was the final day for the delivery of your marriage survey forms, so if you haven’t got yours yet, there’s a chance someone nicked it out of your letterbox and voted on your behalf.
The ABS has confirmed that all 16 million forms have now been delivered to registered voters around Australia. If you haven’t seen yours, you need to contact the ABS and get a new one to make sure that your dodgy neighbour isn’t sending in 50 No ballots on behalf of everyone in your street.
Requesting a new form is easy. Just go here and fill out the details. Every ballot has a unique barcode matched to an individual voter’s name, which means that if you request a new ballot your old one will be cancelled and you can make sure your vote is counted exactly the way you want it to be.
This Survey Is Messed Up, You Guys
But in another stunning example of just how farcical this whole process is, this system also means that you can technically cancel your old ballot if you’ve already voted, but now want to change your mind.
The ABS says changing your mind is not a valid reason to request a new form, but all a person would have to do is lie and say they never received a ballot. So, everything’s just great. Nothing wrong with the process at all.
Now you might be thinking that no one would actually steal a ballot out of the mail, right? Well, here are just a few examples of how shitty and open to fraud this whole process is.
Here’s Miranda Devine realising that a lot of people in sharehouses don’t update their details when they move.
If this is real, it's wrong pic.twitter.com/FYw4Pq8KUS
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) September 19, 2017
This Is Happening Quite A Bit
Another #SSM survey success. Just got three letters addressed to different people at my studio apartment. All could be filled by 1 person ? pic.twitter.com/DZHydIsOyt
— Marie Hogg (@mariecamilleh) September 19, 2017
Like, A LOT
Big ups to the 7 people that haven't changed their enrolment info and their vote mail came to my house. My vote just evolved 7 times hahaha
— Michael Beveridge (@mickyb273) September 13, 2017
Dear Mr X… your same sex marriage survey form has been posted to my home address. Are you a yes or a no ?? pic.twitter.com/SI91uGJg5I
— BenFordham (@BenFordham) September 18, 2017
There are also countless stories of ballots — some opened and some unopened — being found in garbage bins.
It’s Happening All Over The Country
Surveys Are Even Being Sent To Dead People
Which is great. Just great.
The point is, we just really don’t know what will happen in this survey. The government has never done anything like this before and the whole system is pretty dodgy.
Every vote will count, and the team running the Yes campaign says it will be a lot closer than people expect. So if you think same-sex couples should have the right to get married, it’s really important that you take the time to fill in your survey.
So if you haven’t got your ballot yet, today’s the day to get a new one. It will take two minutes.