Election? What election? Most people have switched off

"PEOPLE are furiously busy with our own lives and blissfully unaware of this election at all”.

Election volunteers outside early polling booth on Molesworth St. Picture: Sophie Moeller

MINUTES after taking part in an ABC Radio National panel program this morning about the NSW election, I encountered two out of three people who didn't even know there was an election on tomorrow.

One woman in the coffee shop across the road questioned whether she had to vote at all, one had to be reminded it was on, while the third seemed to be reasonably well informed about it.

The teenager, who was voting for the first time, didn't know whether or not she was enrolled, and asked whether she still had to vote if she lived in Lennox Head.

That's democracy in action these days.

Ordinary people in the community have just switched off politics and are not paying attention. We have also failed to reach young voters on a platform that resonates with them.

All those weeks of campaigning, election ads, policy launches and announcements are falling on (mostly) deaf ears.

Apart from the political elite and media talking about it endlessly, this NSW election simply does not compute for most people.

It's a bit like that Seinfeld episode where George and Jerry work out the pitch for their pilot TV program being about "nothing”.

This is the campaign we've had to have. Four years are up, and we're all forced to vote for candidates we're mostly ignorant about.

And the biggest issue on the agenda? Is it really knocking down sports stadiums in Sydney? Please tell me that's not the case.

It just goes to show, the disconnect from those in power, and the reality of ordinary folk in regional areas like ours furiously busy with our own lives and blissfully unaware of this election at all.