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Originally posted by Mitch.
What do the Yanks on here think about compulsory voting?
We've had it here in Australia for ages and I can't imagine elections being voted on by less that half of the population.
Obviously it has its drawbacks. It would probably infringe on one of your Rights/Amendments. It also means that we get about 10% of the vote being left blank or incorrectly done.
But at the same time it means that our leaders can argue a stronger mandate, considering nearly the whole country had their say. Plus it generally forces them to the centre on most issues, fringe ideologies don't usually fly at compulsory elections. I also think it forces people that would otherwise be uniformed to start to get engaged with the policies being put forth (however the evidence on this is shaky at best).
What do you think? Would it be something you would like to see?
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Definitely not. With this education system, I barely want the people who normally do vote to have a say.
The less uneducated, racist, homophobic, sexist red necks the better.
I also think that forcing people to vote would end the establishment parties as we have known it to be, and the US political system we've fought for would take major hits. Also I think people who simply aren't interested will just randomly vote without consideration. It'll be a mess.
