You can’t open a newspaper or turn on the tv or radio at the moment without being bombarded with the Danish local and regional elections. Hey, even bloggers are doing it… 😉 Election Time! Left. Right. Left, left, right!
But I digress! Anway, getting non-traditional voters (a.k.a. The Young) to get out of their seats is the new black. I had to laugh when a student explained in a radio interview why he probably wouldn’t be voting: “Well, um, I’m at High School so I’m, like you know, um, reeeeally busy and might not, um, have time to vote on the day.” Ha! Well, Sonny Jim, there’s no need to wait until 19 November…
You can go along to your local council offices right now and vote there. Or even, as I did yesterday, at the library! Hold on a mo’ – have I told you about my love affair with Danish libraries? Oh, yes, I think I may have done… 🙂
Anyway, the library has little booths all set up.
You don’t even need to bring your Valgkort (voting card). Give the Librarian some form of id, ideally your sygesikringskort (national health card). Or your passport or driving licence. They’ll check you out on the computer and give you two envelopes. Exhibits A and B…
Into the voting booth you go. Remember to close the curtain for more dramatic effect! Inside each envelope you will find a voting card. There are three boxes to choose from. Either write down Bogstavbetegnelse: the letter that represents the party you are voting for (e.g. A, B, C, etc). Or Listebetegnelse (Partinavn): the full name of the party you are voting for (Socialdemokraterne, Radikale Venstre) . Or Kandidatnavn: the name of the candidate you are voting for (e.g, Frank N. Stein, Frank Furter). Confused by all the different letters? Go back and read Election Time! Left. Right. Left, left, right!
Close the envelopes. Take them out to the Librarian, who puts them in a special envelope and asks for your signature. And off the envelopes go by Special Post.
And if you get home and change your mind about who you’ve voted for? Well, you can go back the next day and vote again. If fact, you can vote as many times as you like up until 18 November – only your final vote will count. Then again, you can always just wait until 19 November, and head for the (busy-at-peak-periods) polls. But, hey, if you’re a student, who knows how busy you’ll be that day? 😉
Happy Thursday. Get voting! Check out some good books!
Diane 🙂