Recently I made my own envelope out of a sheet of paper and sticky tape, signed it and affixed a sticker. Then I took it to my nearest Australia Post shop in Sydney and mailed it.

In other words, I voted from abroad in the US midterm elections. Because my last place of residence in the US was the state of Virginia, I can register to vote and request a ballot online, but the ballot still needs to be printed, signed, sealed in an envelope made of folded paper, signed again, placed inside another (store-bought) envelope and mailed in. There was no sausage sizzle or cake stall to reward me for my civic duty, and no spectre of a fine if I didn’t complete it.

I give a wide berth to anything resembling a craft project (haunted by the ghosts of Easter hat parades past) but I would cross-stitch a ballot if it lessened the power that President Trump wields over my country of birth. Hell, I would papier-mache an airplane and decoupage a pilot’s licence to deliver my vote in person.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as fervent: voter turnout in the midterm elections in the US is typically less than half the........

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