One of the memories I have from handing out how to vote cards (apart from the bitterly cold morning) is the young chap who hurried through, waving aside all how to vote cards, announcing, proudly, “I am voting informal”. Let me translate for you, that means “I care so little about the culture and society and economy and environment of the community and country and world I live in, and am so stupid, that I have decided to let other people decide what government Australia will have for the next three years”. I mean these were people who seemed to be following Mark Latham’s advice – yes, really – to put in a blank vote in order to … Well, in order to what wasn’t clear. Punish the politicians? Show them who was boss by withdrawing your own voting privilege? It was all a bit like another frequent comment when refusing the proffered ‘How to Vote’ pamphlet – “No, you save it”. “Save it for what?” I wanted to reply “They are already printed, here they are, in my hand, ready to help you in the voting process, what do you imagine will be done with them if not used?” But I don’t, having been brought up to be polite. It is the same principle as voting “informal” with a blank paper. What do you imagine that achieves? The election is on, would you rather we didn’t have elections but a dictatorship? The candidates are there, the voting papers are ready, electoral officials ready to start counting. If your paper goes, blank, into a bin, instead of onto a pile, what do you imagine that message is, to anybody?

A general memory of the day is the same behaviour that Maxine McKew observed in Bennelong. In 2007 there was a buzz among the voters, an enjoyment of the act of voting, a feeling of being part of an expectation, a likely achievement, a change for the better. This time, among Liberal, Labor and Green voters alike, there was a glumness, a lack of enthusiasm, a sense of an unwanted task being undertaken, a feeling, I think, that the votes were going to mean nothing, that whatever the outcome, there was nothing to look forward to. In its most extreme form this was another reason for someone throwing a blank voting paper in the face of all those believers in and fighters for democracy over hundreds of years. You often hear it “Oh, none of them are any good, won’t vote for any of them”. “Really?”, I might say, if I wasn’t so polite, “you have checked all the candidates out, read their policies, considered their qualifications and experience and personality? And out of all the candidates, with political philosophies ranging from far right to far left, all different ages, backgrounds, occupations, you can’t find a single one that you even dislike slightly less than the others? Really?” This kind of negativity festers as a mindless nihilism, a no-nothingism, do-nothingism. A refusal to be part of a family, a village, a society, a country, a refusal to contribute, cooperate, work toward a better future.

As I write this I don’t yet know the details of result, but if I had to guess I would say the likely outcome is a conservative government led by Mr Abbott with the support of the three conservative independents. I doubt that this will make even the people who voted for conservative happy. Not only did Abbott run a negative campaign (yes, I know) but his party stands for purely negative policies – no broadband, no return of excess mining profits to the public, no refugees, no reduction in greenhouse gases, no protection of fish stocks (or Cape York), no support for public schools or public health. Abbott conservatives, even more than Howard conservatives, believe in government that might be small enough to drown in a bathtub but is kept dry in order to ensure that big profits for big companies get bigger and bigger. There is no other function of government except to organise military operations in coordination with the US, and regulate the morality of its citizens. No wonder even conservative voters looked glum at the prospect of “winning”. I bet they are all muttering to themselves this morning “One more such victory and we are lost”.

Gillard I think, by contrast, does have a positive view of the function of government, that it is to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. The tragedy of the 2010 election is that she was so poorly advised that she was totally unable to sell a positive vision for the future of Australia and fell back on negativity and easily parodied slogans. It was a caricature of a campaign, and those responsible should be taken out and drowned in a bathtub if Maxine hasn’t already done that.

And the Greens? Well their slow climb up the percentage ladder continues. But the Senate success means little with a conservative government in power. A lot of negativity can be achieved in the 9 months before the new Senate sits. And even once it does, the Greens are reduced to trying to block excessive lurches to the Right, and be therefore seen as mere spoilers; and any initiatives they try to take themselves will be blocked by Liberal and Labor working together, determined to let them take no credit.

Still, I might wake up tomorrow, and discover this election was just another bad dream of the kind I keep getting since I started taking handfuls of tablets to prevent a broken heart. I mean, we don’t deserve a result like this.

Do we? That would be heartbreaking.