I don’t see it… You can always choose not to register as a member of any party. Some places allow for a formal registration as “Independent.” California allows you to name any dang silly party you want. (There are scads of members of “The Tupperware Party” and “The Birthday Party.”)
Me, I’m against mandatory voting, simply because it’s an infringement. If people don’t care, what benefit is it to society to compel them to go through the empty ritual of casting a protest ballot? They’re just going to write in “Mickey Mouse” anyway. What do we really gain?
I don’t know about problems being solved, but one excuse I’ve seen for not voting in the recent US election was that it wouldn’t make a difference anyway - their state was a red state or a blue state and one more vote wasn’t going to change that. Who knows what effect it might have if everyone was compelled to vote in those states - perhaps voter apathy because of perceived party dominance is skewing the numbers and creating a self perpetuating cycle? Ok, pollsters probably already do know the answer to this but still… Wouldn’t it be interesting if safe states suddenly became swinging states just by expanding the voter pool?
Another excuse is that some people “didn’t have time” or “ran out of time”. It’s amazing how much time people suddenly find when the alternative is a fine.
Really, even that second reason comes down to one vote not making a difference so why bother. Compulsory voting would give them a different incentive, make it seem worth the effort to go out and vote even if they think their party will win/lose whether they vote or not.
What about people who are opposed to the voting process itself (Anarchists, Monarchists, Neo-Nazis, misanthropes, whatever…)?
That’s the reason why I’m opposed to mandatory voting even though it’s a rather fringe issue.
Anyway, even ignoring that, like a number of other posters, I can’t really see the point of forcing uninterested people to vote. The only advantage of mandatory voting is that it tends to benefits moderates (people having strong opinions one way or the other are more likely to vote, advantaging more extremist candidates) hence to probably reflects more closely the majority’s opinion.
ETA : Belgium too has mandatory voting by the way. And anybody remotely familiar with the political situation in Belgium during the last decade can see how much good it did to them.
That seems quite necessary to me. The older and more disgruntled I get, the more often I’m casting “blank” votes. I would be very unhappy if I hadn’t this option, and it’s possible that in this case I wouldn’t go to the polling station at all.
If on top of that, voting was mandatory I’d probably choose to pay a fine rather than being forced to choose between candidates when my position is “none of the above”.
I don’t see anything wrong with it. In fact, it might give us a better picture of the voting public.
If 100% of the voters turn out and 60+% of them drop in a blank ballot - which basically is a ‘none of the above’ vote - I think we might start seeing candidates show up that actually appeal to the public.
If you had to vote, you’d find you would in fact vote for your least hated candidate/ideology, if nothing else. Someone is going to be elected, since you are there, may as well have your say.
And as you know well beforehand that this task is going to come, chances are you will devote at least some attention to assessing the candidates.
Informal votes are tallied in Australia, but I can’t imagine they get any more scrutiny than what is required to determine their lack of validity
No. God almighty, why do we want to grant the government even more power? Anyone who doesn’t want to vote shouldn’t have to. I’m glad they don’t, frankly.
It’s just human nature that huge numbers of the apathetic folks who would be forced to vote wouldn’t pick “none of the above.” Instead, they’d choose for reasons like “That guy looks more like a president” or “My dad watches the news a lot and he’s voting for this guy.” Is that really what you want?
So, simply to satisfy the government that my voted is counted, I must travel to the polling place, at my expense, and deposit a blank ballot? What’s the point? The fact that I stayed home and didn’t vote at all accomplishes the same purpose.
Nothing says democracy quite like a government forcing its citizens to participate.
IMO, 99.9% ,including myself, of voters are making their choice based on insufficient information because politicians are experts at obfuscation, doublespeak and misdirection. Only if we had a way to force politicians to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth would it be useful to force citizens to vote. Otherwise we would just get more of the same soundbites and fearmongering that make up our elections now.
What if I don’t send it back? Would that be enough for the government to ensure that I had the opportunity to have my ballot counted, or do I need to send back a blank ballot to stay out of criminal trouble? Or an empty envelope? Or an envelope which contains a hand written letter saying “Thank you, but I choose not to vote”?
Would it improve the quality of our leaders if I made a smiley face out of the punch holes in the ballot?
How about we all just mind our own @#$%ing business and not force people to do something they don’t want to? There needs to be a very compelling reason any time we want to force someone to do something he’s inclined not to, no matter how much of a warm feeling the thought of 100% participation gives us.
“Leave me alone” is a perfectly valid position for someone to take, one the government should respect whenever it can. People not voting doesn’t grind the gears of society to a halt, it doesn’t stop trials from occurring or allow taxes to be unpaid or anything at all like that. It simply offends the sensibilities of some people who don’t like the thought of an apathetic electorate. Too bad.
Like I said in the other thread, I figure it’d be a quick race to see which major candidate simply points at the hate to pick up those have-your-say votes.
“The guy I’m running against is the one forcing you to vote; elect me and I’ll make sure people like him stop ordering people like us around.”