Voting

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http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/austral ... fences.htm

It's true, in Australia once your name appears on the electoral roll, you must front up to the poll booth and vote in every election. Otherwise you get a politely-worded letter asking you to please explain yourself or risk being fined. My brother got such a letter when he moved back to Canada. The electoral commission seemed satisfied with our explanation that he no longer resided in Aus. At least, no further letters were sent.

Of course, none of this can prevent a person from casting what is referred to here as an "informal vote", which simply means that you've spoiled your ballot. It's easy to spoil your ballot by mistake, particularly if it's a Senate election where there are a couple of dozen parties in the campaign, and the ballot is the size of a tablecloth. The major parties helpfully send workers to the poll booths to hand out leaflets with their preferred "How to Vote" instructions. One hates to think how much waste paper is generated in this exercise. Most of it gets recycled, thankfully.