This article contains several inaccuracies or omissions. First voting is compulsory, so one has to vote. Secondly, voting is always on Saturday so, except in Winter, when one can vote after sunset, shabbat desecration is likely (not just Yom Kippur). But the remedy, which I used, is to avail oneself of absentee voting, by which a vote may be cast ahead of polling day by anyone who cannot get to the polling booth. The whole story is a storm in a tea-cup.

Actually it was set for September 14th, not 17th. Yom kippur is on the 14th sept. The election date has been changed by the NEW prime minister, Kevin Rudd, to September 7th (the day after Rosh Hashannah).