Does Australia have the right idea with voting? (1 Viewer)

Ahsoka · 23 October 2020

From what I heard, Australia has a requirement to vote and if you don't vote, you get a fine. I don't know how it is in other countries, but in the US people not voting is considered an issue, especially among young people, so there's loads of advertisements telling people to vote on twitter, facebook, through universities, ect. Should the US enact a similar law to Australia or do you think it doesn't matter?

For me personally, I don't think it's needed. The way the voting system is set up it doesn't matter as much what your vote is as an individual, and in some places, even the popular vote as the state doesn't matter since the electros don't need to follow the popular vote of the state and can vote against what the people want (though that's less common). I know in my state it won't matter what I vote for either since I'm not in a state where its anywhere close, I know my state is voting for Biden.

JakeyWantsCakey · 23 October 2020

I think it would be better that way, democracy doesn't really work unless everyone participates in it.

Plus you should really vote! You shouldn't just take it for granted that everyone else is gonna vote a certain way plus you have all of the people of the down ticket that effect you more locally too!

dnb · 23 October 2020

Interesting topic! I did not know voting was compulsory in many parts of the world.

Compulsory voting - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Penalties vary. In Brazil it's a fine

Those who do not vote in an election and do not later present an acceptable justification (such as being away from their voting location at the time) are subject to a fine of R$3.51 (about US$0.65 in August 2020).

In North Korea, it's more than just a fine

Everyone over age 17 is required to vote. However, only one candidate appears on the ballot. Voting is designed to track who is and isn't in the country. Dissenting votes are possible but lead to repercussions for voters.

and a BBC article has a little more detail:

If the state works out you did not vote, NK News says, "you and your family are in trouble".

Suzy · 23 October 2020

Actually it's a funny situation here (in Australia). So basically when you turn 18 you need to enrol to be part of the electoral roll. After you enrol, you then have to vote for the rest of your life and if you don't you get fined. If you don't enrol to the, you're not on the electoral roll and as a result, whether you vote or not no one knows and you don't get fined for it either. And they do very little to get you on it. The moment you turn 18 they mail you the enrolment form and call you a few times then they move on. But interestingly we still have like 16M on the electoral roll (in 2019) with a 25M population so I guess their lack of effort works lol.

As far as the fine goes, personally I think it's good and bad. Good because it gets everyone ~~who is signed~~ to get a say in who leads our country. Bad because it forces people to vote even if they don't want to and as a result they just vote for whoever and based on rumours they hear around instead of doing research and voting for who they actually think would be a good leader.

Also, this is the first time I'm finding out that voting is not compulsory in America. That's so interesting, I thought it was something everyone had to do. I guess this explains why so many celebrities keep promoting voting. It was weird since I didn't understand why they would need to but it makes sense now.