As we head into the final week of polling an entire nation on the basic human rights of its LGBTIQ+ citizens, the Australian Bureau of Statistics have today revealed that a massive total of over 12.3 million people have already had their say in the marriage equality postal survey.
77 percent of eligible voters have returned their surveys so far – which is definitely a good thing, considering $122 million of our taxpayer dollars has been wasted on this glorified opinion poll.
The Yes campaign is pretty stoked about the high voter turnout – for comparison, already a higher percentage of Aussies have sent their survey forms back than Brits showed up to the polls for the Brexit vote last year.
Tiernan Brady from the Equality Campaign said:
We welcome the high turnout of voters because it shows that Australians are passionate about getting marriage equality done.
Posting your ballot this week means it still can get there. It’s not too late. Don’t throw it in the bin, put it in the post.
Don’t expect marriage equality to get over the line with someone else’s vote. If you want marriage equality to happen you have to make your voice heard.
While the recommended deadline for popping your vote in the post was last Friday, the postal survey does not actually close until 6pm next Tuesday November 7.
You can still risk the postal system, or, if you’re in a capital city, you can drop your survey off at the source, to an ABS drop-off centre, before 4.30pm on November 7. They’ll be open 8.30am to 4.30pm erryday – except in Melbourne on November 7, because Cup Day is more important apparently. The online voting system for Aussies overseas will be accepting votes until 9pm AEDT that day.
If you haven’t voted yet (WHY NOT), we urge you to hurry up and vote yes, because the only thing worse than the fact that we have been asked to do this at all is if same-sex marriage is put on the backburner for another few years because some people (here’s looking at you, Kelly) couldn’t be arsed.
The results are due out on Wednesday November 15.
