Today we brought you news of the campaign #PostYourYes, encouraging people to return their completed marriage equality ballot ASAP, and to encourage more people to return their votes, by posting selfies and photos of the process. Great.
People have also been posting photos of their forms filled in, and sometimes changed, with the question altered or words crossed out. That is not as great.
It is extremely important to personally return your vote, and to help encourage others, but the most important thing is to make sure it is done in a way that protects your privacy, and in a way that still makes sure your own vote is valid.
Each envelope has your name and address on it, which is obviously always a smart thing to not take photos of and put on your social media. Along with this, each form has its own unique barcode on the bottom of the form, which is used to link each individual form to each eligible Australian. This makes sure that nobody can respond more than once.
To ensure that your personal barcode cannot be meddled with, or copied, or tattooed onto someone’s body, it is important to make sure that this part of the form is also kept out of images you might be sharing. It’s easy to do, just crop that mo’fo.
The ABS also has rules and instructions to make sure that you fill in the form correctly, and that your form isn’t made invalid with the way you have voted.
So there you have it. Let’s all keep up the enthusiasm, and make sure each and every Yes vote is counted.
