What a glorious morning! Clear sky, warm sun, Spring is coming. The team was up bright and early, the packs for the booth were ready, the routes were all marked out. Di’s itinerary was finalised. The ute was off to Mt Barker with Di while other members of the team were at Mt Barker, Victor Harbor and Stirling for prepolling. The most frequently asked question: Is voting compulsory?
Prepolling has been quite an experience and we will have more to say of the irregularities at a future date. This week it has been us, the Liberals and Family First there in person to hand out “How to Vote” cards and the Greens have had a stand with their material. Mostly everyone has been collegial, swapping amusing anecdotes and some friendships have formed. Today there was some vandalism of materials at one booth and our volunteers were denied access to toilets by local storekeepers of a different political hue: a good argument for maintaining public infrastructure and not privatising essential services. Fortunately, there are still public facilities in most country towns.
Di was greeted warmly by electors in Barker: many had already voted and told her how pleased they were to have an intelligent woman running for Mayo. A number of Liberal voters told her they were voting for her because they approved of her stand and campaign. Everyone likes the ute.
Channel 9 and Channel 7 arrived but the Liberal candidate was no where to be seen. Di talked with the reporters who waited a while and then relocated at the office of the candidate. Di later talked to Channel 2.
At 6.00pm we packed up our goods and headed for Milang where the team was still hard at work with schedules for tomorrow. Pizza for tea while we watched Stateline. Go team! Go Di! What great coverage. There was Di in her studio with her latest book, on her beach pointing out the water levels and dead fresh water mussels, and talking about the campaign. Dr Haydon Manning offered his analysis of the election: too close to call but there could be an upset. It will all be about preferences.
We missed the item of SBS but caught a glimpse of Channel 7.
Di and her team and all the volunteers will gather at the Mt Barker Bowling Club from 6.00pm onwards. Join us and help us celebrate a remarkable campaign.
