We voted on October 1st - that's more than 80 days ago. Still we have no government but at least coalition talks between the election winner socialist party (SPÖ) and people's party (ÖVP).

One major topic is an electoral reform - a thing they have been negotiating about for more than 30 years now.

In fact they have never really come to an agreement because the positions are too different. This roots in the way the parties approach electoral reform as they only think about gaining shares in voter stock. While SPÖ think it is mainly the young voter that votes for them, the ÖVP thinks it is the 30+ that are very mobile. Respectively the first want to lower voter age down to 16 and the latter want to introduce postal voting.

In general both reform undertakings are very positive although I'm not quite sure on their impact on voter turnout.

While the lower voter age is positive as studies have shown if someone doesn't vote the first time they are able to, they never will. So it might have a positive long-term effect as first time voters are more likely to vote while they are still in school then afterwards.

For postal voting I think this is a good way to support participating by people that want to. Actually we have already got postal voting but only from abroad. In my eyes it would be a good amendment to allow for it also within Austria as it is likely that more people will continue to vote.

Further more the introduction of postal voting would ease the discussion about Internet voting as both are forms of remote (uncontrolled) voting which so far was not possible under the Austrian constitution due to Constitutional Court ruling.

So far it's only rumours and it will take until the 11th of January when we will know if the two parties will form a coalition and in fact if electoral reform will be part of their undertakings. It's going to be interesting times!