WHEN voting for March's state election started two weeks out from polling day, this newspaper asked why it was needed.
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So now, with the federal election still almost three weeks away, it is even more ridiculous that early voting is already under way.
Are we really that busy that we need a three-week window to find the five minutes required to carry out our most basic democratic duty?
Even if a large number of people legitimately cannot make it to a ballot box on May 18, one week of early voting should be enough to cater for most of them, while postal voting is in place for the rest.
As it stands, early voting is a deeply flawed system that requires enormous resources to be done properly and one that puts minor party candidates at a distinct disadvantage.
While Labor and the Nationals will have a roster that ensures at least one of their volunteers is outside the Bathurst voting centre at all times, candidates representing the smaller parties can only dream of such support.
Then, as this newspaper has previously pointed out, once the polling stations close at 6pm on May 18 and the counting starts, any close results will be further delayed because votes cast early - up to one-in-three eligible votes in some electorates - cannot be counted that night.
And, for all that, we instinctively know that very few of those early voters will have a legitimate reason for doing so.
For the vast majority, early voting is simply a matter of convenience - one less job to do on a weekend.
There has to be a better way, and many already believe there is: electronic voting.
Following a knife-edge result at the 2016 federal election, all sides of politics gave cautious support to the idea of electronic voting, providing security concerns could be addressed.
But in an age when we happily shop online and conduct our banking from our lounge room, surely we can make a safe and secure online voting system.
And it's hard to imagine that an electronic voting system could be more prone to rorting than the current system where we only have to state our name and address - and produce no identification - to receive a ballot paper.
The technology is there for electronic voting and the political will is (apparently) there, so why are we still waiting?