Voter Anxiety

I’M not proud to say this: I’m not a great voter. I mean, I vote — it’s only good manners, after everyone went to so much effort to print all the ballot papers and shake off the yoke of colonial oppression an’ all.

It’s just that, quite often, I haven’t given it enough thought. I go to the polling station, smile at the election staff, tut-tut silently at the poor turn-out, so far, covet the metal puncher they have for putting little holes in the ballot paper, stand at the polling booth, take up the pencil and ... um.

General elections are more straightforward. If you’re stuck, you can always fall back on voting for whoever your parents would vote for. The ballot paper has lots of choices, and you can always vote for a party, even if its rep is a bit of a tool. And vice versa.