I used to be guilty of this, but a few years ago I had a conversation and it made me rethink my privileged apathy.

Shortly after voting in the federal election in 2013 I hopped on a plane to Istanbul.

After 23 hours and one harrowing taxi ride I was finally able to look online at the results.

Support for minor parties and independents was high and I had messages from friends laughing about how they hadn’t voted or had done a ‘donkey vote’ because they were sick of the mess that they said was politics.

I laughingly told this to my new Turkish friend Basak later that day explaining to her how our prime minister had been ousted by another only to be then re-ousted again and how Australian politics had descended into a madness fit for a soap opera. 

She told me that she couldn’t believe how lucky I was that I could think that was funny. “I don’t know what will happen after the next election if the same party gets in, maybe civil war,” she shrugged – genuinely considering it as a potential outcome.

The opposite of Australia’s disengaged political youth, the younger people in Turkey fiercely campaign in elections, they rally when their free speech is curtailed and bravely face down tear gas when their government tries to silence them. 

“Live free or die,” one of them once said to me.

Notoriously corrupt, Turkish elections be they local or federal tend to be characterised by missing votes and violence, a democracy sometimes in name only.  And yet every election Basak makes her way to the polling booths and makes an educated decision for who she is voting for. She says knowing her vote will likely never be counted is so frustrating it makes her want to scream.

When we vote, provided we fill out our piece of paper in the correct way, we know it will be read and tallied and will go towards the final outcome. With the internet we now no longer have the excuse of not understanding the policies of different candidates, and when they live in your town even less.

It may only be a local government election on September 10, but we all have a duty to make our vote count because we have the undeniable privilege of having our votes actually count.

- HANNAH HIGGINS