# Would shame help get people to vote? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 27, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-shame-help-get-people-to-vote/973875 "2022-10-27T14:04:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-shame-help-get-people-to-vote/973875/41 "2022-10-29T01:20:39Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Which has nothing to do with the OP, shaming people into voting. No, it doesn’t. I was responding to the question you asked. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-shame-help-get-people-to-vote/973875/42 "2022-10-29T01:40:15Z")
The experiment is already under way. In some states, you can obtain a record of whether people voted or not for free: [Access To and Use Of Voter Registration Lists](https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/access-to-and-use-of-voter-registration-lists.aspx) In my state, you have to pay a fee to get a list showing who voted when. But if you know the birth date of the person, you can see if they are registered, for free, on the web. This means I can check my relatives and harang any who has let their registration lapse over Thanksgiving dinner. I do not think this would help anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-shame-help-get-people-to-vote/973875/43 "2022-10-29T12:54:49Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > 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. THIS. Thousands of people are denied the right to vote by Republicans seeking to make it insuperably difficult for demographics who trend Democratic to cast ballots. Work on that. For example, universal vote-by-mail. Oh, which would require adequate funding for the fucking post office. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-shame-help-get-people-to-vote/973875/44 "2022-10-29T13:17:04Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > The hubris of “I am an educated voter and it is my prerogative to determine the fate of all” converges to tyranny. That’s not what a voter does, the whole point of a democracy is that there is no one voter who determines the fate of others. It’s the exact opposite of tyranny. If democracy is tyranny to you, what form of government do you prefer? ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-shame-help-get-people-to-vote/973875/45 "2022-10-29T20:54:59Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > the whole point of a democracy is that there is no one voter who determines the fate of others. I’m sorry, I’ll type more slowly. The poster I responded to rationalises the process and their preeminence in it. “I am an educated voter, I consider you to be uneducated. Therefore your vote is less worthy than mine, indeed yours should not count at all” IMHO this would not represent a modern, enfranchised democracy. YMMV. And then you allow to count as votes only those who agree with you, for surely if they do not agree with your godself then they must be lesser educated. This to my mind represents a tyranny against those persons, factions, minorities, majorities, peoples who disagree with the self determined meritocracy. Of course those who are in agreement, even if only a singularity, consider the process to be exemplary democracy. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-shame-help-get-people-to-vote/973875/46 "2022-10-30T17:05:17Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > But there is. Sure, but then they have to care that others know. Right now, it’s not exactly something a lot of people keep secret I’ve found. Lots of people freely admit to not voting, and nobody cares, least of all them. So like I was saying, it has to matter to the person doing the voting whether people approve of their voting or not, and they have to get caught at it, or run a good chance of getting caught. Otherwise, they’ll just not vote and keep it on the down-low, like people do with so many other things that garner social opprobrium, like infidelity, excessive gambling, etc… I think the first part is the uphill climb; you’d have to reeducate society in such a way that NOT voting is very frowned upon, and then engineer a sure-fire way to show if someone voted. The second part is trivial, but I suspect the first part is insurmountable at the moment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-shame-help-get-people-to-vote/973875.md?page=2)