As you remove the half dozen or so candidate flyers from your mailbox this week, spare a thought for the candidates and their campaign teams who have spent the last month putting these flyers together. From writing the content, to organising a graphic designer, to finding a printer that can promptly turn these flyers around at the last minute because ‘someone’ forgot to place the order, to getting them delivered in time. So much work goes into this often-unappreciated campaign paraphernalia.
And then there are the flyers themselves. Have I checked the spelling? Tick. Have I included the authorising statement? Tick. Have I included the candidates name? Oopsie… You may laugh, as many a resident did in a northern Port Phillip ward this week as they wondered why a candidate’s flyer had the candidates name manually stickered to it – a process presumably repeated a couple of thousand times – before the flyer was circulated throughout that ward.
This isn’t the only sticker that has been circulating this week. An anonymous, unauthorised item has been stuck-up around St Kilda, denigrating a plaid wearing candidate in that same ward. I first came across this sticker when it was stuck to the wall of the building in which I reside. You may know my building. It’s the one with all the security cameras, directly below one of which the offending sticker was placed last weekend. Smile!
A trader on Fitzroy St kindly placed the sticker up in their front window, directly above a corflute of the candidate that trader is supporting. Although now removed here’s a gentle reminder that displaying and circulating unauthorised material is a breach of the Electoral Act, and penalties do apply.
A gentle reminder also for candidates that not every corflute location is a good location, especially if the inhabitant of that location is in the habit of placing threatening notes on Green’s candidates’ cars.
It was revealed this week that a candidate who claimed to have no current political affiliation, recently RSVP’d online to a very minor political party’s Members Only event held last Wednesday evening. According to the candidate this RSVP was for research purposes only. We might have to ask for a “Please Explain” from the Puppet Master on this one. Good online sleuthing to Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma over on Almaville who came across that little gem hidden deep within the bowels of the internet.
Written and Authorised by A. Bond. 6 Victoria St, St Kilda.
