Your Vote Counts

Local Election day in South Africa, and we walked up to the local voting station to vote this morning. We took Lindt with us, thinking the queue would be short and so we could take turns.

It was short - but a convoy of DA cars arrived with all the voters from Marian Villa just as we got there, and so I had to wait a bit longer than usual to put my mark on the 3 pieces of paper we had.

It was so interesting to stand amongst all the older people (most without active lifestyles) and hear what they were saying about voting. One old man told me that he was voting to see if we could get a council who would fix things. Another said he voted because it was the "right thing to do." Some of the people in the queue probably voted for the last time in their lives - they won't see another election. Others were just enjoying the outng because they don't drive any more.


I remember the last election with my Mom - we got to go in the "short" way (no stairs) because we were with Mom and there was no way she would have found her way through the church and to the voting station without a helper. Then we had to tell her what to do - where to go, where to put her cross and what to do with the papers afterwards. Heaven knows who she actually voted for in the end. We kept saying "Your vote counts!" but I wonder if it really did - or the way we wanted it to, anyway!


This time round, my brother-in-law, Les, put up a sign outside his complex on Monday. The rubbish hadn't been collected for 2 weeks, and there was a huge pile of black bags on the verge. Les's sign said "Penny Lane residents - vote wisely on Wednesday!" Good on you, Les!


I couldn't help thinking about 1994 again. There was so much hysteria prior to the elections - people had stockpiled tuna and paraffin and many whites were terrified of what the evening would bring. Others were elated - an old lady who had lived in South Africa most of her life, but who had never taken out South African citizenship was thrilled to be allowed to vote "for the first time." Friends in our Bible Study group had rushed off to cast an early vote the night before at the YMCA so they would avoid the "danger" of the next day.


We voted at the University - standing in a long queue of people of all colours and languages. The mood was excited and friendly. When the Electoral Officer closed the station so her workers could have a short break, we all groaned together and wondered why they couldn't take their breaks in shifts. The officers were friendly and full of high spirits, despite their obvious exhaustion. The queue moved slowly, with so many people voting for the first time, and needing to be shown what to do. No one got grumpy or abusive - we all just stood and shuffled forwards and talked and smiled. I wouldn't have missed it for anything! So how it must have felt for people who had been disenfranchised until that day, I can't imagine.

I'm sure there were lots of mistakes made that day - people voting more than once, lists being mixed up, votes going astray - but it set the groundwork for all the elections that followed. Today, the queue was short - maybe it was apathy, but mostly I think it was that we now have a functioning Voters roll, we know what we are doing, we are a grown-up country with a fully enfranchised population. I don't think much will change politically after today's poll, but hopefully, the build up to these elections has shown that people DO want better service delivery and less corruption, and maybe we will find things changing some more.

I voted - and I know my vote counts. Did you?