# Is voting more important than personal freedom? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 17, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-voting-more-important-than-personal-freedom/340406 "2006-01-17T20:39:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-voting-more-important-than-personal-freedom/340406/21 "2006-01-20T05:56:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I think it’d be better for you to find things people are compelled to do, not things they’re compelled not to do. > What I was attempting to say is that taxes result directly in services in a way that voting does not. We can argue about examples, but my point is that not all compulsory things have to be tyrannical. Forcing people to vote - when the benefits of voting are debatable - is probably more tyrannical than forcing them to pay taxes for, say, the roads they use every day. I don’t know who you’re voting for, but the people I vote for go to work every day. And compulsory clothes-wearing is something people are compelled to do, as is compulsory walking, and compulsory child-rearing (however the task is distributed, someone’s gotta do it). ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-voting-more-important-than-personal-freedom/340406/22 "2006-01-20T06:10:35Z")
> [@Spatial Rift 47](#): > > I don’t know who you’re voting for, but the people I vote for go to work every day. And compulsory clothes-wearing is something people are compelled to do, as is compulsory walking, and compulsory child-rearing (however the task is distributed, someone’s gotta do it). Well then why don’t we just dispense with the freedom of where to live, since this isn’t really a free country anyway. I still maintain that just because there are compulsions, that the government does not know what’s best for people, that individuals need the ability to make their own decisions, and that no matter how hard you try, no government can possibly manage our daily lives properly. Greater controls lead to more chaos. Look at the drug war. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-voting-more-important-than-personal-freedom/340406/23 "2006-01-20T06:50:16Z")
> [@Spatial Rift 47](#): > > I don’t know who you’re voting for, but the people I vote for go to work every day. And compulsory clothes-wearing is something people are compelled to do, as is compulsory walking, and compulsory child-rearing (however the task is distributed, someone’s gotta do it). Yes, you’re right. I missed it after “not-murdering” and “not-stealing” during my first reading. But rather than argue about examples, I’ll say that compulsory /= tyranny, and that compulsory voting is probably more tyrannical than paying taxes because of the benefit issue. [Tyrannical is not a term I’d prefer to use for compulsory voting; I think it’s simply a bad idea.] ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-voting-more-important-than-personal-freedom/340406/24 "2006-01-20T14:02:57Z")
**mswas** , there is no freedom of where to live, just multiple choice, which usually works out just fine. I agree that a government of less than a thousand congressmen, justices, and executive staff can’t make decisions for a nation of 300 million people. Compulsory voting isn’t the government making decisions for people, it’s forcing people to make a decision. **Marley23** , I’m not sure what you mean by the benefit issue. Why do you think compulsory voting is a bad idea? ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-voting-more-important-than-personal-freedom/340406/25 "2006-01-20T14:17:38Z")
> [@Spatial Rift 47](#): > > **Marley23** , I’m not sure what you mean by the benefit issue. Why do you think compulsory voting is a bad idea? I’m not Marley, but I also think it’s a bad idea. Only people who make a well-informed and reasoned decision should vote. I make a point of voting, but I’m often uninformed (or cannot see a meaningful difference between canidates) regarding local races, so I don’t vote in those. If I simply flipped a coin, I’m giving a facade of democracy to a government chosen pretty much by lottery. Further, you cannot force people to be make a well-informed and reasoned choice. Even in the most totalitarian of systems, people will simple ignore the information you publish about the canidates and issues and refuse to think about them. You can force people to fill out a ballot, but you can’t make them think about what they’re doing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-voting-more-important-than-personal-freedom/340406.md?page=1)