I was told that in Belgium (?) it is mandatory to vote in order to get a passport. You can cast a “blank” ballot - not choosing anyone, but you still had to actually vote in national elections in order to get a passport.
Needless to say, almost 100% of the citizens voted in every national election.
I was wondering if that could work in the US.
Assume for a minute that we made it a law in the US that, in order to keep or get a driver’s license, every citizen HAD TO vote in national elections (not necessarily local elections). Again, you could cast a “blank” vote and not actually choose someone on the ballot if you wished, but you still had to vote - mail-in absentee votes OK.
How much of an uproar would this cause?
Who would benefit from this influx of voters?
Would this change how election campaigns were run?
I don’t see how this would be a good idea. Casting a blank ballot just creates unnecessary work for both the voter and those who process and count the ballots.
I just can’t see any good reason to make voting compulsory in order to obtain a driver’s license, or for any other reason, really.
Perhaps I should answer my own questions as I see it:
How much of an uproar would this cause?
Probably a riot initially.
Who would benefit from this influx of voters?
My guess is that Democrats would get an advantage, eventually, as younger voters and minorities are notorious for not voting - and they traditionally vote for Democrats.
Would this change how election campaigns were run?
I think politicians would have to consider a larger voting block and actually talk about real, major issues instead of pandering to smaller, traditional voting blocks issues.
I could see it being exploited once against whichever party imposed it. As a campaign tactic, “vote for me, because I oppose the idiots who dragged you to the polling booth by coercion. I, on the other hand, trust you to make up your own minds whether, and for whom, to vote (so vote for me)”
If it is to get more people involved in the political process I think it would be counterproductive. People would be resentful of the government intrusion and a significant portion would either spoil or make a joke of their ballots.
Getting people to want to vote is a loftier goal, IMO.
I don’t think it would ever fly politically in the United States, because what would you do with non-citizens? (“Resident aliens” to use the USCIS’s term.) They can’t vote, so either you don’t let them get driver’s licenses…which is ridiculously impractical…or you’ve set up a situation where non-citizens have an easier time getting driver’s licenses than citizens. Try selling that to John Q. Public.
If there were some way to make voting easier and more palatable, you’d have an easier time with your proposal. As it stands, I need to get to the polls when they open, or I may not be able to vote at all because the geographic distance is too far to make it on my lunch hour and by the time I get off work, the polls will be closed.
ISTM that if we’re talking about electronic voting machines, I don’t understand why the machines can’t be networked to pull up the appropriate ballot. The elections board would issue people without driver’s licenses a similar card that could be used at any polling place, statewide. When the card is swiped, the voter’s address would determine the ballot. The voter would then vote, and the number assigned to that card would be locked until the next election.
I just had a thought. Many 18- to 22-year-olds attend college away from home. This idea would work well for them because they can’t make it home to vote and often don’t get (or know about) absentee voting. Allowing them to vote a full ballot in the town where they go to school would make it more convenient and attractive to them.
People viewing vote count as some type of metric has always annoyed me. Getting people to vote just for the hell of it is ridiculous. We need more INFORMED voters, not more mindless drones. What good is it having someone voting for a party or candidate that they have no idea about?
The parties would have to pander to the wilfully uninformed and uninterested. More Willie Hortons, Flag Burnings and ovums of the comatose flogged while the lobbyists and PACs get their hands more firmly on the real issues.
We should make it as easy as possible for people to vote- but we should not make them vote. I think your freedom to cast your ballot any way you want to for any reason includes the freedom to abstain from voting for whatever personal reason you have.
The last thing we need is more people who don’t understand the issues voting. I’d prefer having less people vote if it would mean we’d get a more interested, more informed voter. I think the result of forcing people to vote is that Ronald McDonald would win as a write-in candidate.
If you think getting a green card or a resident visa in the US is easy, then you are deluded. There are millions of people living in the US who would get one if it were easy.
I come originally from a country where voting is compulsory, and where that compulsion is generally accepted. If you fail to vote and don’t have good reason, you are fined a relatively small amount. The result is high participation in elections, and a fairly low informal vote. Of course, people know that (because the ballot is secret – it’s called the “Australian ballot” after all) they can just leave their ballot paper blank, but once they are at the polling place with a ballot paper in their hands, almost everyone decides that they do prefer one candidate over the others.
Make election day a holiday and offer extended hours, make it so that folks who work can get the time to vote without having to completely screw up their workday.
Wait until you find out how much it costs to get the entire voting-eligible population to cast a ballot. Getting 260 million+ people to get to a polling place and/or a computer, which you will have to do if you make voting mandatory, will be a logistical nightmare and a financial disaster.
I seem to recall reading that the Republican party has generally opposed measures designed to make voting easier, such as when registering for a driver’s license.