Casting my vote (away)

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My country of  citizenship (Australia) has a national election on 7^th September. The election decides who will govern the country for following three years.

Australian elections are genuine contests and governments often change as a result. Present predictions are that government will change this time.

I am glad for the institutions of government in my country, for the comparative integrity of the election process, and for the vote I have. I have lived in a country with a far less developed democratic processes and this makes me appreciate those in my own place.

As a Christian of reformed theological outlook I believe that government is a blessing given by God, for which we are to be thankful and for which we should pray. I believe that no one constitutional arrangement ideally fits with Christian truth, but that almost all can be used by God, whether democracy or dictatorship. I also believe that Christian people are to engage with public life and its institutions as part of loving our neighbour and fulfilling our call to be salt and light.

I normally vote when elections are called. I try to do so as a thoughtful Christian and have voted for various parties over the years. I think that a ‘Christian vote’ is not just a case of voting for Christian candidates or voting for the party with Christian values on selected issues … rather it is a more complex process of weighting issues, comparing policies and leadership and asking what a Christian vote looks like in a post-Christian multicultural society. It’s complex rather than simple.

However, I will not vote in this year’s election.

But, first a side-issue. It is often said that Australia has compulsory voting. This is not quite so. What is compulsory is to register, attend a polling place (or make arrangements such as a postal vote), identify yourself to the official with the roll, take a ballot paper, not deface it, and return the paper to the ballot box. There is no compulsion to actually vote.

I will be overseas on polling day, so voting is more difficult, although not impossible. My reason for not voting lies deeper and is explained below.

Issues

Several issues appear on the election radar. The economy, education, disability policy, asylum seekers, environment and telecommunications are all trending as hot topics.

On some of these issues the two major parties can be differentiated (eg telecommunications). On others they have converged, whether from shared centre-right values or a shrewd tactic of neutralising potentially vote-losing views on matter not considered important.

The main alternate party to the two major ones is the Greens. I like their environmental activism and social compassion, but struggle with their aggressive endorsement of same-sex marriage and can never support their open-go on abortion. I especially like their humanitarianism towards asylum seekers. The Greens are economically naïve, but have a positive role as a party of balance to restrain a government of one of the other main parties.

So who to vote for? Christian conscience keeps me from the Greens on issues like abortion and same sex marriage. Of the two major parties, instinct pulls me marginally towards one party rather than the other. However, I abhor the race to the right in both these parties on asylum seekers. My weighting of this issue is so strong that I really could not vote for either.

Leaders

So what about leadership? One major party is led by a professed Roman Catholic who espouses traditional Catholic morality on some issues of interest to me. However, he appears to be an extremist I personality and I wonder if he has the nuance of views and actions to be a good leader in government. The other major party is led by a professed Anglican who shows a greater awareness of nuance, but who supports same sex marriage and whose personal style was a problem when he was previously Prime Minister. Both these leaders are hungry for power. That is no surprise in a party leader and is not necessarily a problem. However, both have displayed ruthlessness in that hunger, such that it seems to have become an idol for both.

Summary

So here is the problem that keeps me from voting. One some issues I could vote for any of the significant parties. On others, I have deal-breakers with each major party. I don’t have high confidence in each of the potential Prime Ministers, although I do prefer one to the other.

And so I choose not to vote. I will pray for the election to go smoothly, confident in the sovereignty of God, and I will pray for the new government to govern well. I will try to be a good citizen who cooperates with the government and obeys its laws. However, my Christian vote is too important a thing to be cast for policies and leaders that I cannot endorse. And so I will cast my vote away.