Retired again!

Last Thursday I worked my final day on the recent council election and state referendum. (held March 19)

So many of my friends think that the job finishes the day after the election and they are always surprised that I'm still not available for my usual activities. 

But every bundle of ballot papers from all of the polling booths is check counted...as are those votes taken in booths in other wards (Absents) as well as the pre poll votes.  The postal votes' envelopes are all processed/scanned, the flaps with  details are separated from the envelopes, then these are opened and the votes counted...twice. All these amount to thousands and thousands! Everything is made into bundles of 50, so over the week you count from 1 to 50 many, many times. :-)

I spent many an hour with the scanner so I could mark off postal voters...

The rubber thimble was my 'best mate' while flipping through bundles of ballot papers...

It was fun seeing where some of the postal votes came from too...

Voters who apply for a postal vote receive a 'Reply Paid' envelope to send their ballot papers back for counting, but they are only for posting in Australia. So that's why in the previous photo there are US, U.K., German and Hong Kong stamps.

But some Aussies also put stamps on their envelopes, so I have a nice little number of stamps to pass on at church. ( the Anglican Church raises money for missions by selling on used stamps; in 2014 we raised $10 000 this way, so every little bit counts. ) 

And all that cardboard that an election generates! 

Members of the public often express concern that pencils are used to record votes instead of biros. They are of the opinion that pencil marks can be rubbed out easily. At the pre poll centre some voters actually expressed the opinion that office staff open the ballot boxes out of hours and erase people's votes and change the choice. Huh??? Really ??? 

But the reality was quite different.  Every night during the pre poll fortnight, those red ballot boxes, have the top flap zipped up so that the slot is covered and secure, and a lock with a serial number is attached and witnessed on the accompanying paperwork. And a similar system is used on the cardboard boxes too...and a similar routine happens when those security flaps are opened with the witnesses checking numbers on the lock tab etc. 

And in the last few days I worked, I helped pack up some of the items used by polling booth staff when issuing votes.

DH and one casual staff member continue to work for another day or so. They will be packing up everything to go back to the warehouse run by the electoral commission, and the old abandoned former bank will go back to being empty again. 

The view looking out the front doors of the building. 

The bank actually moved out of this building in May last year but every day we had people who came looking for the ATM...they would always act surprised when we told them that the bank had moved across the road last May??? You know what? Generally, people don't read signs do they?? Lol