In case you’ve somehow missed it, the referendum vote for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is this weekend and according to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), a whopping 2,212,581 people have voted early. One of those keen beans was hilarious Sydney content creator Claudia Bursill, who is known better by her moniker Miss Double Bay. The Aussie meme queen took her followers on a voting journey recently by accidentally being a bit too excited to cast her vote.
In an effort to use her platform of 58,000 followers to show her support of the Voice, she posted a picture of her early ballot which emphatically read, “Yes!” with an exclamation point on her Instagram Stories.
“I simply wanted to show my support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum as well as let my local followers know there’s a convenient place in Bondi Junction for them to go and cast their vote,” Claudia told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
But it wasn’t long before she received a bunch of messages saying that she might have fucked up. And naturally, she freaked out.
“I was a tad gutted and also slightly embarrassed that the enthusiasm I had towards my vote could have potentially made it invalid,” she explained.
Thankfully, a follower soon explained that chances are her early vote was most likely counted as a “yes” because the exclamation point supports her “yes” vote, rather than making it unclear what she really meant.
A spokesperson from the AEC confirmed this was the case to Daily Mail Australia.
“There is the ability to count a vote if the intention is clear. That’s what the legislation requires,’ the spokesman said.
“The issue with a cross is that on many forms people in Australia use in daily life, and in some other languages, it represents a ‘checkmark’ indicating “yes”.
“It therefore leaves it open to interpretation or challenge by a scrutineer. A ‘tick’ would also be open to interpretation and may not count depending on just how clear that mark is on the ballot paper.”
The AEC representative also confirmed that a ‘Y’ or ‘N’ may be accepted but if the handwriting is unclear it could be counted as an informal vote.
Sharing her doozy of a voting journey on IG, Claudia wanted to make sure her followers don’t make the same mistake – or at least, have a close call like she did.
What’s the lesson we’ve all learned here today? I’ll let Claudia take it away: “Don’t let your emotions get in the way of democracy!”
So however you’re voting, it’s important to just write “Yes” or “No” to keep it simple and avoid any unintentional mistakes.
Kudos to our eastern suburbs queen Miss Double Bay for taking us along for the journey.
You could say it’s a Miss Double Slay.
