News reports say about half of registered Californians voted and about 35% in Georgia. They call this great.
The US should have a law like Australia’s that would require eligible voters to cast a ballot. How can there be a democracy when less than half of Americans bother to vote?
Why isn’t “not voting” seen as a viable choice? Part of a free society is the freedom to not participate in the political process, in my opinion.
That’s right…and besides, who wants people voting who wouldn’t bother unless they were forced to? It’s hard enough getting people into office that we’re happy with even when they’re put there by people who pay attention.
Having lived overseas in places where people can not vote it is just really sad that Americans throw this opportunity away. At the moment CNN reports the total number of voters in CA at 5,568,112… this just seems extremely low to me.
:rolleyes:
Y’know, not that many people ever voted in the primaries. Unless they were/are particularly affiliated with a particular party, cause, or candidate, it’s not that important; if you aren’t invested in it, you have no reason to vote.
People who don’t vote are generally uninformed about the candidates and the issues. IMHO this gives them zero right to complain. If they want to abstain and leave the choices to people who care, that’s fine with me.
One thing to remember, we have **a lot ** of elections in most areas of the United States.
I think that depresses voter turnout. Between local elections, school board elections, primaries, run off primaries, and general elections there are a lot of different elections.
Also, the primaries yesterday aren’t the general election. More people watched the Super Bowl than the wild card playoff games.
Again, no, it shouldn’t. The government already takes in plenty of money without fining people who have other priorities or aren’t significantly wowed by the politicians who ask for their votes every couple of years. Asking disinterested people to pay money if they don’t take the time to spoil a ballot is ridiculous.
My feeling is that a lot of people choose to work instead of vote (since the money makes more of a difference in their lives), and in that situation you would actually be forcing them to pay to vote by either taking a fine or leaving work. There are a bunch of easy options that I think would improve voter turnout, like extending voting periods and making Election Day a federal holiday. Fines would just be a cash grab.
Dude that’s what Rush said! The rock band, not Limbaugh. “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
You know what I’d like to see on the ballot? A selection for “None of the above”. Just because half the people don’t bother to vote, doesn’t mean we can assume they’re ignorant or lazy. They may just not have anyone on the ballot to vote for. A “none of the above” option would let them demonstrate this.
Of course, there is a risk that “None of the above” would win. In that case I don’t know what we would do, maybe draft someone, like jury duty. I think someone picked at random of the streets would do a better job than some of the presidents we’ve seen lately, but that’s just me.
Your numbers are wrong. Georgia’s turnout was 44%, which was a record for a presidential primary.
Maybe not “great” by your standards, but a record nonetheless.
I lived ten years in Australia. As a dual citizen who still loves Oz, I believe forced voting Down Under has done much to prevent Australia from becoming a truly viable, prosperous and free country where everyone is judged on their merits. Besides, when you read the history behind forced voting in Australia it has nothing to do with freedom and everything to do to keep power concentrated among the elites, to the detriment of everyone else.
Agreed.
The whole point of compulsory voting has been to consolidate the two party system. It allows lackluster and often downright dishonest politicians to prosper at the expense of more active and genuinely popular candiadtes simply on the basis of party membership. Similarly it allows major parties to prosper simply because they are major parties.
By forcing people to vote when they have no particular interest in the election you inevitably get a majority of people voting for a party rather than a candidate. IIRC somehting like 60% of Austrlians can’t name their House of Reps member and something like 95% can’t name their senator. How can you have a democracy when the vast majority of people are voting for candidates they can’t even name? People simply vote for a party, and in many seats the popular expression is that the party could stand a sack of potatoes and it would win. That is not a democracy.
Optional voting elimates a lot of this problem. People have to be sufficiently engaged with the candiate to vote for them, or else sufficiently concerned about a cause to vote for a candidte based on that cause. Either way candidates have to fight to get elected, not just fight for party preselection. It makes politicians fight over issues, not just fight over votes.
There are some advantages to compulsory voting, but none of them outweigh the problems it creates and none of them of them justify removing people’s freedom.
Ive lived in Australia for 20 years and have no idea what you guys are talking about. There have been more viable party alternatives in Australia than the US, that actually had some ability to effect political decisions.
And I seriously doubt the average voting American is really any more informed than the average voting Australian, if that claim is being made I think it should be backed up with evidence.
I think ‘forced’ voting works fine for Australia. For larger countries its probably impractical. It really doesnt have to be an either/or.
Otara
Believe it or not, some people don’t vote because they know about the candidates and don’t like them, or don’t have any faith in the system, or any number of informed reasons. It gets my goat when people get all smug about voting, like it’s the most important thing you can do to effect change in society. Voting is all well and good, but it’s certainly not the only nor the most active mode of political participation.
Thanks for the other views. In Nevada we can vote None of the Above but I have not voted in local elections in almost 8 years (since I left shortly after Bush got elected).
It’s silly to criticize us for voter turnout for the presidential primaries.
That said, if you forced me to vote for any election you’d just be wasting my time. If I thought it was worth my time to vote, I’d do it on my own initiative.