Don’t put glitter in your marriage equality postal vote

Posted on 24 August, 2017

I am a huge believer that love is love and that everyone should have the right to a hen’s party, a buck’s party, wedding, and above all, a marriage.

Naturally, I’m voting YES in the upcoming marriage equality postal vote.

There have been a number of fun memes popping up throughout the internet ahead of the vote, suggesting that people fill their postal votes with glitter (the herpes of the craft world) to demonstrate their overwhelming support of the Yes vote.

However, including glitter in your vote could do more damage than good.

While chatting with ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and his partner Anthony Toms, we found out that trying to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the Yes vote with glitter could unintentionally void your vote.

Andrew and Anthony have this message for everyone participating in the postal vote:

“The federal government‘s voluntary postal survey regarding marriage equality is very important to LGBTI people, their friends and family,” says Andrew and Anthony. “We urge you to ensure you are enrolled to vote and have your say.”

“Please remember to only fill out your postal survey with your answer and nothing else. Adding glitter, stickers or anything else to your form may deem your postal survey void and mean it may not be counted. This issue is far too important to many Australians to have your survey not count.”

“But why would glitter and stickers void my vote?” I hear you ask.

It’s because when the postal vote takes place, the envelopes will be essentially scanned to check for any dangerous substances. While glitter and stickers don’t seem too dangerous, the scanner will determine that if an envelope has something in it other than paper, then your vote doesn’t count.

Your vote will quickly turn from an enthusiastic YES, into something that may as well have been a no. It’s just like a donkey vote in an average election. If you don’t fill out the form correctly, you’ve wasted your time and you’ve wasted your chance to support Australia’s LGBTI community.

We are regularly shown that just a few votes can be the difference between loss and victory. Make your vote count and spread this message to make sure everyone else’s vote counts too.

ARE YOUR POSTAL DETAILS CORRECT?

While we have you, make sure you check your AEC enrolment details here BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (THURSDAY 24 AUGUST).

If your details are incorrect after midnight on Thursday 24 August, your postal vote might be sent to the wrong address (you’d be surprised how many people have their old rental or residential address on there and checking takes two minutes).