Calling Bruce in San Diego!!!

Wondered the same myself for ages.

OK Bruce, give us the good oil (that's Australian for good information).

Who votes, and why?

In Australia we all have to vote and we get so many ill informed cretins voting that we may not always get the right result. For example in Melbourne we have two newspapers, one of which is a tabloid rag that the majority buy and are influenced by its biased commentary and the masses vote accordingly. They only vote because they have to, otherwise they wouldn't bother.

The American system is better in my opinion. Only those who care enough, take half an hour out of their lives every four years to have a say in how the country is run.

Anyway, enough bleating, this is not a relevant thread and should be deleted.

Bad Dog Wolfie.

Sausage sizzle, I must have been at the wrong polling booth!

I may be cynical but I think the reason voting is compulsory in Australia is that all the candidates the poll more than 4% of the primary vote in their electorate get $1.98 per vote.
Added up to over $30 million between them at the last election.

not Bruce, but as a fellow american I can answer some of the questions:
Typically the voting booths open at around 6:30 am and go till about 7:00pm. You have to vote at a perticular place (your district). Usually, it is very busy in the morning before work, then slacks off between 10 and 3:00pm then gets very busy again.
Depends on where you work as to if they give you some flex time. The biggest thing is that a lot, i mean a lot of people don't bother.. if they get 25% in some elections, that is a great turn out. my mum actually works at a polling location and they are usually bored after the big rush. But then again, I would say it depends on where you are.
I don't think that making it a requirement is a good idea, but I know it is low on a lot of peoples priority list in America.