Pictures of the counting rooms show how carefully the process is carried out by electoral officials overseen by representatives of the candidates. As I see it there is no need to rush, it is far more important to get it right. 

It also takes time to ensure votes placed by mail have reached the tally room. Every vote does count in our democracy.

We have safeguards in the form of the caretaker mode of government that ensures that the day to day business of government proceed even if it takes time for a final declaration of polls.

While I can understand that some think that electronic voting is the way to go for speed, the vulnerability of electronic systems to hacking, machine breakdown etc keeps me in favour of the “number the box system”.

We have a great, if slow system, that works very well for us.

- Stuart King, Toronto

I WRITE to express our disappointment in somebody in our neighborhood. This act shows lack of respect for neighbours, the neighborhood, and the environment.

A wrecked red car was dumped on the road in front of a new house being built in our street.

A couple of weeks later, in the early hours of Thursday morning, July 7, we heard a truck stop down the road making quite a noise. It was only later on that I realised that the truck had moved the car and deposited it on the verge to make it look like the car had crashed into a street pole.

Who will remove it now ?

I cannot believe people can show so little respect for the neighborhood.

- Name and address withheld.

HERE on a temporary visit to see my elderly parents, I drove off with them on Saturday morning in order to cast their votes.

Apart from roadside parking, there were absolutely no facilities provided in any way for the disabled.  After circling the area a few times, we had to return home.

This exercise in futility was repeated four times during the day.

On the last attempt, we managed to grab a spot just as a car was leaving but the trauma was far from over.

There was a long walk to the polling area and a standing-only queue.

There was no way that my dad, who is in his 90s, could have dealt with that so he sat on a bench and waited till my mother got close to the entrance then joined her.

There wasn't even a separate entrance for the disabled.

It is difficult to imagine that in a modern westernised society like Australia, any government-controlled authority would treat with such contempt, disabled senior citizens who are only trying to do their patriotic duty.

- Marie Steffen, Wegenstetten, Switzerland 

I THINK all voters taught the government and the opposition a  big lesson last Saturday. Like me, all voters have had enough of all the bitching that goes on between the major parties. “Yack, yack, yack, yack,” but nothing gets done at the end of the day. Indeed, we all taught them a very big lesson.

- John Attard, Brightwaters

SINCERE congratulations and/or commiserations, whichever is or becomes appropriate, to Linda Burney for her election, among her many other achievements, to the federal parliament. But while she is the first Aboriginal woman to reach that pinnacle it is a myth she is the first indigenous woman to do so. Where were all the past and present female members born if not in Australia?

- Ron Elphick, Buff Point