How can 1 in 5 Australians fail to vote?

The woman in front of me in the polling station left a note on a piece of paper for the electoral officer before she left the polling station, she did not collect ballot papers, she didn't stuff anything in the ballot boxes before she exited.

What happens to people who are overseas or of no fixed address or who have moved from interstate within the last 3 months or moved into my electorate since March.

Of course postal votes and pre-poll votes start getting counted tomorrow and you might be surprised at how many people pre poll vote.

The number of people not voting is not surprising, nor is the fact that there is an increase.

The fact is that the major parties are so far removed from average people, and obviously do not and will not govern in the interests of the majority that many come to the conclusion that there is no point voting.

Particularly given the fact that ultimately, regardless of who you vote for, in order to cast a valid vote you must preference either of the major parties. If you don't want to vote for them why should you be forced to - twice? First voting is compulsory - you get fined if you don't vote. Second - when you vote for someone else, you end up voting for Labor or Liberal - who are both pretty much exactly the same. Why bother? It is highly anti-democratic, and a prop for the 2-party system.

It is no coincidence that as the entire apparatus gets more anti-democratic (i.e. illegal war, anti-terror laws which strip us of democratic rights, electoral laws which disenfranchise people), increasing numbers of people choose not to participate.

More and more people understand, conciously or unconciously, that the change we want can't be effected through the parliamentary system.

The only reason they are the two major parties is because most people vote for them. If you don't like them, rank the minor parties higher, but the fact that it comes down to a race between Labor and Liberal is not anti democratic. It is the essence of democracy. Getting to choose between them in addition to voting for a minor party does not detract from your vote for the minor party in any possible way. It just gives you more say in how our country is run.

On the contrary, freediver. I don't want either of the major parties to run the country, yet ultimately, my vote goes to one or the other of them regardless of who I vote for. I find that completely anti-democratic.

Even if I voted Greens, which I didn't, they are promoting the fact that their preferences helped elect a Labor government.

Preferential voting is anti-democratic. In order to cast a valid vote you have to list a preference for parties you either know little about, or completely disagree with. Why can't you just vote 1 for the party or candidate you want, and that be a valid vote?

Before you say that the vote is wasted, think again. I vote for one party in opposition to ALL other parties. If my party doesn't win, then it makes no difference to me who wins - I oppose them all equally. I don't want the other parties to get my vote - that is my democratic right. Yet the preferential system denies that democratic right.

Sorry, I forgot to say, that the increasing numbers of people choosing not to vote are also exercising a democratic right NOT to vote which is denied by a compulsory voting system enforced by fines.

They are also exercising a democratic right NOT to vote for the major parties.

As many contributors will be aware there is actually no compulsion to vote - there is a compulsion to have your name marked off the roll, accept the papers and place them in the box - nobody can force you to mark them but many people believe that they must. It is also an offence to discourage people from voting - don't have the act in front of me but it is written into the act.
If, as the figures suggest, 20% of eligible voters failed to vote and other people made an active decision not to put themselves on the roll (as opposed to not enrolling in time)then it raises serious issues which need to be addressed - and 'education' and 'reminding people of their responsibility to vote' will not address the issues.