Compulsory Vote

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

In a different thread it was mentioned that the vote in Australia is compulsory to the point of fines if the individual doesn't vote. Personally I do like the idea, specially if the None of the Above option has consequences, for instance in Colombia for governor and mayor elections, if a majority of voters chose what we call a 'Blank Vote' new elections have to be called and depending on the circumstances with different candidates.

Today, in many places, including the US and Colombia the majority of voters simply abstain from voting, and that has absolutely no consequences on the election, thereby endorsing the will of the majority without making a choice, while in reality they are disenfranchised or apathetic about the democratic process.

As a last note, if votes are compulsory, the state must do everything in its power to allow everybody to vote, while in places where it isn't there is no incentive to allow such things or even worse, an active desire to suppress the votes of those who the system doesn't like making it increasingly difficult to vote (ie, did you know that in the past presidential election many precincts in Florida hadn't finish casting votes way past the time when it was known who won? Not surprisingly, the Republican governor and FL congress did their best [worst] to shorten vote windows, close precincts and make it harder to register to suppress potential Democratic votes).

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

It is my opinion that voting should take a week + 1 day, Sunday to Sunday.

And there should be million dollar fines for leaking results until after the final Sunday' votes are in.  Higher fines if the person is connected to media in any way-- multiple-millions.

Exit polls are a matter of free speech, but they have been wrong before.

I would also permit absentee voting via the US mails, but not via the Internet or Call-in, as this would open the ugly door to the selling of votes to the highest bidder-- there's sufficient corruption as it is.

I'd also insist the polls be open for extended hours on the last Thursday/Friday.  And they'd have to take on extra staff during lunchtimes, etc.

I also like the compulsory idea a lot-- only death or Federal Crime conviction would excuse someone.   Illness is not an excuse, unless they are in a doctor-certified coma .... that absentee thing again.

In fact?  I'd allow the absentee ballots to be picked up by anyone, at the voting precinct, without much fuss-- the ballot would be meaningless without a valid SS number on it, so it's basically just a form-- I'd even permit downloading & printing via the internet, and hand delivery back to the polling place.  That would cover those home bound or bedridden or ill unexpectedly-- someone brings them a ballot to the hospital, they fill it out, and seal it up, drop it in the mail postage-free-- just write "official ballot" in place of the stamp.  Million dollar fines for abusing this, too.

That ought to cover the basics-- and the US really **would** become a "government **of** the people and **by** the people" instead of what it is now: 

Government of the highest bidder-- but only since last week.  What's the bidding for **this** week like? 

.... meh.  They don't even stay bought.... ensuring even **more** corruption.

[Griffin NoName]

According to Blue, it is not compulsory to vote in Australia, only compulsory to be registered attending the polling station, which is entirely different.

I can see no point in compulsory voting if there is no "none of the above" which could trigger another election. I suspect if this was used in UK we'd have no government at all. Which IMO would be a whole lot better than what we do have.

I can see no point in voting at all, compulsory or not, without "none of the above".

But then, having won votes for women, I am now disenfranchised once more.

[Bluenose]

I am far from convinced that compulsory voting is the best thing, but if you do have it then the way it is done over here does seem to be reasonable.  You are not bound to vote at any particular polling booth, generally there are a lot of booths in each electorate and for the last two weeks (and it will continue up to polling day) electoral officer have even been travelling to remote communities for pre-poll voting so that even those who live in the far outback will get the chance.  As I said before, you can basically vote anywhere there is a polling booth on election day, and if you know in advance you won't be able to make it there are at least a couple of other ways you can vote.

I find the idea of having to pre-register the place you are going to vote a bit odd.  Recently we have adopted a computer based system whereby electoral officers register the presence of electors, but until now it has been via printed copies of the electoral roll.  At each polling booth the main section is for people voting in their electorate, which is the overwhelming majority.  Each electoral officer has a copy of the roll for that electorate and crosses off the name of each elector that shows up (or enters their name on the computer/tablet if using the computerised system) - there are usuall several of these officers on duty at each polling booth at any one time.  For absentee voters, a separate officer manages the voting and has copies of the ballot papers for all electorates to issue to the voter.  These are then placed in special envelopes and then inside second envelopes that have the voter's details on the outside and are passed through the system back to the returning officer for the electorate concerned.  The outer envelopes are used to record that the voter has voted and are then discarded.  The inner envelopes are removed, separated from the outer envelopes and the votes counted as normal.  So I fail to see why the UK requires you to register where you're going to vote.  Is it just "we've always done it this way"?

Also as an outside observer, what I have seen of some practices in the USA seem designed to make it as difficult as possible for some parts of the community to vote.  How do the officials doing this get away with it?  I suppose it might be that each US state runs their owns show, over here the election is run by the Australian Electoral Commission a Federal body specifically created to run elections, oversee the redistribution of electoral boundaries and a number of other things relating to voting matters, such as conduction trade union elections etc.  This body is independent of the government and woe betide the politician that ever tried to interfere with its operation.  I have worked as an electoral officer for a couple of elections and the training is very thorough and the legal requirements are clearly made known.  Ensuring the integrity of the electoral system is given paramount importance.  You get paid for doing this work (not a huge amount, but reasonable) but I have always seen as it part of my civic duty.  It's a long day, but I have always felt it was worth it.

[Griffin NoName]

We don't have to register where we will vote. We get told where to vote. What happens is you have to fill in a form defining who lives in your dwelling. That is then used to put those people, at that address, on the "electoral roll". This is used to issue "polling cards" which dictate where your pollling station is. ie. it's tied to where you live. These "areas" are called "wards". The officials at the polling booth have lists of who is registered on the electoral roll in that ward and you give your polling card to them and they tick you off. This way, you can't vote more than once, ie in different wards. Except if you are a student living away from home. In this case, you can choose your home ward or your university ward and get registered for one or the other, ie. not both.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

over here the election is run by the Australian Electoral Commission a Federal body specifically created to run elections, oversee the redistribution of electoral boundaries and a number of other things relating to voting matters, such as conduction trade union elections etc.  This body is independent of the government and woe betide the politician that ever tried to interfere with its operation.

That says a lot [of good] about Australia, and also explains why you can happily vote None of the Above without feeling that doing so will bring rapture all too soon.

What are your arguments against compulsory vote?