Australian newspaper asks readers not to draw penii on ballot papers | Hacker News Reader

Australian newspaper asks readers not to draw penii on ballot papers

theage.com.au

21 pointsempressplay16 comments

I'll be that person. The plural of "penis" is "penises" in English. An alternative plural for the English word "penis" comes from Latin, the language the word is borrowed from, and it is written "penes", since the word is, in Latin, of the 3rd declension, and hence takes the plural ending "-es".

Words in Latin that end in "-i" in the plural are of the 2nd declension. Hence the status of the word "penii" as a plural for "penis" exists only as a hypercorrection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercorrection.

I venture that penii was used either for its amusement factor or to avoid saying penises which contains the word penis which is a socially embarrassing word. :) But 10/10 for being that person, thank you for being that person.

"Penis" is censored in article titles. When you submit an article with the word "penis" in it, it removes the word entirely.

Drawing a penis on a ballot paper is frustrating for people who actually care about the country – you've registered to vote so perhaps you could have spent 5 minutes becoming informed, and then making a proper vote rather than drawing a penis and rendering your vote informal (i.e. not counted).

That said it's infinitely better than donkey voting which is a more serious issue that plagues our elections.

A donkey vote is when someone numbers their preferences from top to bottom, or bottom to top on the ballot paper. This is considered a formal vote, and your paper will affect the results. Positions on the ballot paper are randomised to try and reduce this as much as possible.

Wait, what? Is it mandatory to vote in Australia?

Yes

Kinda. The requirement is for the person to enroll, attend a polling station and have their name marked off the electoral roll as attending, receive a ballot paper and take it to an individual voting booth, mark it, fold the ballot paper and place it in the ballot box. The act does not explicitly state that a choice must be made, it only states that the ballot paper be 'marked'. According to the act how a person marks the paper is completely up to the individual.

Well, I'd definitely draw 'inappropriate things' if I was forced to do it.

It's not compulsory to register to vote.

edit: apologies, that's completely incorrect.

While it is compulsory, you are incredibly unlikely to be fined for not registering. The AEC typically sends a reminder every few years if they have information on your residential address from another government agency.

Once you are enrolled though, if you fail to vote at an election you will be asked to explain your absence and, without a satisfactory excuse, fined.

It looks like the AEC now has the power to automatically enrol you too.

Yes it is.

From the Australian Electoral Commission's website: http://www.aec.gov.au/enrol/

It is compulsory by law for all eligible Australian citizens to enrol and vote in federal elections, by-elections and referendums.

You are eligible to enrol if you:

    * are an Australian citizen, or eligible British subject,
    * aged 18 years and over, and
    * have lived at your address for at least one month.

Interesting, I've never seen this spelling of "enrol" before.

I would also draw penii if voting was compulsory.

Australia uses British English, and enrol is the British spelling.

Ah, the joys of localization.

And illegal to encourage people to invalidate their ballots.

It's mandatory to show up at a polling station and get your name checked off. You don't need to cast a valid vote.

When I was younger I used to be against this system, but when I see all the problems with poor voter turnout, disenfranchisement of voters due to screwups (accidental and intentional) with voter registration, and large scale apathy going on with other elections around the world, I've decided that what we do in Australia is actually a good thing.

We also schedule elections on a Saturday to make it easier for most people to get to a polling station.

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