One in 16 votes in the Tasmanian state election were invalid.

Let’s address the elephant in the room here: it’s access. Our outdated voting system simply does not cater for the whole population.

It’s not fit for purpose in this state where 50% of the population is functionally illiterate, that is that cannot read or write adequately to function effectively. They rely on pictures on carton and cans at the supermarket.

They use all sort of learnings to carry out their lives without reading or writing but when it comes to voting they are left to muddle through, and it seems from the high number of invalid votes that strategy is not working for them.

Let’s also talk about people with disabilities, such as those of us who are unable to reach the high voting booths from our wheelchairs. I voted at Bridgewater where there were no provisions made for wheelchair or seated voting. This was not an anomaly as the situation was the same at Kingston and other centres around the state. We as a cohort were forgotten.

The blind community have long been advocating for more accessible voting to no avail. The thing is, a committee was set up, the Tasmanian Electoral Commission and invited members of disadvantaged voting groups attended, representatives from disability groups, and literacy advocates were there telling the TEC what was needed but nothing has changed. The group is on the verge of collapse with stakeholders dissatisfied with not being heard.

The TEC knows there are issues but is unwilling to address them. Why? Is voting really not that important in this state?

Is our democracy in peril when a section of the community is seen as collateral damage and there are barriers to them casting a valid vote?

And it doesn’t matter because the expense or even thinking about fixing the issues take up too much head space for the already understaffed and exhausted TEC who run on a skeleton staff outside of elections.

How ridiculous is it though that those outside of the country were given the opportunity to telephone their votes in but blind citizens were not given this luxury? No, not luxury, a reasonable and necessary accommodation.  Could there be a case against the Electoral Commission on grounds of discrimination?

Let’s not talk about safely either. My polling place was deemed wheelchair-accessible according to the newspaper I carefully read the morning of the election. I chose my place to cast my vote and off I went, not far from home. The thing is there was no accessible parking.

You know, parking where you can get out of your car safely on a flat surface and transfer into your wheelchair.  We parked on the dust bowl outside the voting booth called a lawn where everyone else was parking. Not ideal and certainly not that safe but as we know people with disabilites put up things that are not ideal everyday of their lives.

It is not that long ago that a woman in a wheelchair was killed falling from a non-compliant ramp at a polling booth in Tasmania, but the memory of the TEC seems to have forgotten this.

The message is clear: our votes don’t count, our safely doesn’t count. And democracy is in question when it comes to meeting the real needs of everyone in the community to have their democratic right to have their vote recorded and counted.

Tammy Milne is a deaf interpreter, a community activist in various fields and a person living with Arthrogrophosis Multipex Congenita.