To all my COVID positive babes who are stressing out about not being eligible for phone-voting, don’t panic! Election rules are about to change to make sure you don’t lose your vote.
According to the original election rules people who tested positive to COVID before Tuesday, but didn’t apply for a postal vote, wouldn’t be able to vote over the phone.
Which obviously doesn’t really make sense because we can’t just… not have an avenue for people in isolation to vote.
seems kind of wild that, years into a global pandemic, nobody planned how folks with covid on election day would be able to vote
— Hiero Badge (@hierobadge) May 19, 2022
So, with that in mind, the Australian electoral commissioner requested some changes to expand eligibility to vote over the phone. And the good news is the changes are going through!
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told 6PR Radio in Perth that his government had been waiting on the official advice and now they’re happy to implement the changes. Yay for not excluding sick people from their democratic right to vote!
“They’ve come forward with a solution and we’re happy to support it,” he said.
According to the new rules, anyone in isolation as of 6pm on Friday can now vote over the phone, regardless of when they tested positive. We love to see it.
Voting day is tomorrow, so if you’re not a virgo like me who’s already early-voted, now is the time to get on top of it all! Especially because phone-voting wait times are expected to be pretty long, so if you have to vote over the phone do it ASAP.
Unsure where to start? No worries!
If you’re looking to figure out who each party is and what they want, we’ve got a basic binch’s guide to their goals here.
If you want a more tailored idea of where political parties stand according to your own values, I highly recommend trying ABC’s vote compass. Think of it as a little personality quiz, like “which political party are you most like”. Everyone loves personality quizzes!!
And finally, here’s our guide on how to not mess up your ballot paper when you vote. BTW, try to look at your ballot paper and know exactly who you want to vote for before you hop on the phone. It’ll make the process easier both for you and the poor person taking all the calls.
You’ve got this!!
