Not the shame of voting or not voting for a certain candidate, but just of whether or not you voted at all. This is an old article, but it talks about making your vote public again, not who you voted for, just your status) to everyone. Would this be an effective tactic?
Tactic for what? Why is everyone voting a good idea? What other decisions have good outcomes when made by manifestly unqualified individuals?
A major factor of Trump’s move into the White house was voters who had not previously voted.
Theadshit aside, in general individuals and crowds are better motivated by approval than by shame.
If everyone you know / care about is rah-rahing their voting, then you announcing that you have voted gets you high fives, while not mentioning that you haven’t voted / won’t vote is the least bad choice you can make.
the “I voted” stickers given out at most polling places are an example of that positive rah-rah. It works.
Could shame be part of a carrot and stick vs. carrot or stick approach? Sure. But everything we know about human nature says that the same effort spent on praise achieves more result than the same effort spent on scorn.
Overall, I’m going to say no. Emotions like shame, guilt, or regret are generally felt in retrospect after the causative event. If you want to motivate people to do something, you need an anticipatory emotion like anger, fear, or greed.
In 2014 I convinced many of my stoner friends to vote for Tom Wolf for PA Governor, as he promised to create a medical marijuana program. Sure enough, Wolf was elected and kept his word.
Now I’m trying to convince my stoner friends to vote once more, this time for Josh Shapiro, to keep Mastriano out of office, as he has promised to end the state’s medical marijuana program if elected.
Shame doesn’t seem to stop people’s bad behavior so I don’t hold much hope that it would start people’s good behavior. And that’s assuming voting is considered good behavior, certainly questionable these days.
So was Obama’s so take it for what it’s worth.
To answer the OP, you should vote because you want to or you feel it’s a civic responsibility and not because you’re ashamed to not vote. Also, the right to vote is the right to not vote. I’ll note that totalitarian countries always have over 99% turnout in elections (if they have them).
Australian law requires voting.
And public shaming works as a corrective action for all sorts of civic minded misbehavior, like parking properly, wearing appropriate clothing in public, acting appropriately in public.
If you’re a white dude walk in front of a Walmat and start shouting the N word. You will be publicly corrected quickly, but first it will be with shame.
Wow, what does that even mean?
I wear shorts in the winter on a warm day when it goes up into the 40s. My gf thinks I look stupid, but I’m comfortable. Or do you mean striped pants and a paisley shirt? Pajama pants at Walmart (the universal uniform there)?
Making it even more convenient to vote and providing incentives for voting (a small tax benefit for example?) are likely to work a lot better and encounter much less resentment than “shaming” non-voters.
It’s tempting to think of putting those who vote for certain candidates in the stocks and having them pelted with rotten vegetables, but it’s probably not a viable option these days.
Chill. I mean like a ‘No Shirt, No Shoes, NO Service’ kinda situation.
Sorry. My gf critiques my clothing choices. Consider me chill.
It may be different in different states, but in Ohio and a few other states that I googled real quick, that is information that is publicly available, and always has been. Pre-internet, you’d have to physically go to the board of elections, but now you can just go online and see if your neighbor, your friend, or your family member voted.
That said, while I do think that more people should vote, and I’m even not against legal mandates for voting like Australia has, I don’t think that shame is the best way to go about it.
It hasn’t worked on me.
I can name a number of politicians (from both parties) who seem to have no shame. Why should voters be expected to live to a higher standard?
Who are the most egregiously shameless Dems?
If someone does not feel like casting a vote for any of the usual pack of crooks, why would they feel shame rather than satisfaction or pride? Equally applies if they did feel like voting for some party.
The catches with shame are twofold.
First, it has to be something you’re actually ashamed of. Second, you have to get caught doing it.
That’s the thing- if someone’s not ashamed of not voting, it’s not effective. And if there’s no actual visibility into whether they voted, it’s not effective.
That’s why approval/affirmation is better; it’s an internal thing that doesn’t rely on outside factors to reward someone.
I sincerely doubt that it would make any difference and, more importantly, it may very well be an invasion of privacy. Also, as LSLGuy mentioned, why are we assuming that forcing people who don’t want to vote to vote is necessarily a good idea?
I know that at least once in my life I’ve gotten a political mailing that contained my full voting record in the state I lived in but to be honest, it was a long time ago and I don’t remember the full context. I think it was presented as some sort of voter “report card” with a grade - maybe giving me an A- or B because I usually vote but I missed a midterm primary or two.
And I think this was a tactic geared to both shaming and inspiring, probably relying on our childhood reaction to “report cards”, making people want to pull up their grade by going to the polls while also reminding people that their voting habits are public record.
In my semi-informed opinion, there are three major reasons why Americans choose to not vote:
- People who don’t pay attention to the issues, or to elections in general; they simply don’t care enough about the issues to engage in the political/voting process. When they do vote, they’re “low-information voters,” and their voting choices are made on minimal information.
- People who feel that “both sides/parties are the same, and they’re all corrupt.” They feel that the entire system is broken, and it simply doesn’t matter who they would vote for, so why bother?
- People who feel that “my vote won’t matter anyway.” Some of them may simply feel that one vote out of millions is meaningless; others may be liberals who live in a deeply conservative area (or vice-versa), and know that their preferred candidates/parties are going to lose, regardless.
I don’t see how shaming any of the above solves the issues.