There was a piddling little local council election in my voting area last year... and of course I wasn't there to vote in it. My parents tried to tell them I'd left the country and so did my brother (who has my power of attorney and is supposed to be able to do anything for me that needed doing) But they said it wasn't good enough and only I could do it. So they sent a fine out and my brother said 'she's left the country' and now they sent a summons to go to court for the wretched thing! Of course I'm not there and even if I was it's not worth it...

Anyway, I thought that they took some kind of automatic record of people leaving the country (I filled out the departure card at the airport) but they don't...

They sent a nasty letter to my mother too because they lost her vote - council elections are all postal votes... and they won't take her word for it that she mailed the wretched thing in either. Seems like a nice money spinner to me - just send out random threatening letters and see who pays up!

i think i'll still be here for the elections, by the way things are slow with the k1 process, but if not i think i have to justify why i didn't vote, at least that's how it works here in Brazil, i'm just not sure if i can do that being in the states. I'll have to add this to my to do list.

Wow i never thought about that i know we had a state election in tassie that i didnt vote in so i guess i will be getting a fine to lol I will take my name off the electrol roll once i have done my tax return in july you can do it on line as far as i know ( I hope )

angela

My mother said they said I had to send them a letter asking me to suspend me from the electoral roll, so I sent it off today.

wow - I wonder if this is applicable only in Australia? I never heard of anyone in the UK 'fined' for not voting - plenty of people here don't vote (some by choice, some by accident)

Singapore had its general elections two weekends ago. My brother sent me a frantic e-mail the night before voting day to inform me that I had to vote too.

I went to check the government polling website and found out I'd have to go to the Singapore embassy in Washington to cast my vote. If I didn't vote, my name would be taken off the electoral register and I would not be allowed to stand for election (HAHA). If I wanted to vote at the next election, I'd have to pay a S$5 fine (US$2.90) and produce a letter to explain why I did not vote the last time.

When I told my brother all this, he simply replied, "Well, screw it then!"

Voting in Australia is compulsory and enforced... if you don't vote they give you a fine (and it's a lot more than five bucks!) Apparantly the fine for not voting in the local election was seventy dollars Australian ($50US)! And that's just for piddly little local council that doesn't really DO anything important!

In Belgium it's mandatory to show up at the polling station whether you wanna vote or not
It's different for expats, we'll get an invitation to register at our consulate if we wanna cast our vote.
Dadaaa, I'm not gonna go all the way to Houston for that (unless there's a fair chance someone who promises a $10,000 grant to each Belgian expat has a decent chance to get elected )

PS. My brother finally got through to the electoral people on the phone and they said that no I didn't have to pay the fine because you don't have to vote if you're overseas... when my mother filled out the explanation notice and sent it back in for me she forgot to date it! All is sorted out...

Oh, and Aussies, there is an actual form you have to use to withdraw or suspend yourself from the voting roll... you can get it off the Australian Electoral Commission website. Mine's going in the mail today.