Is it right to chose not to vote?
Today we discussed compulsory voting and this got me thinking. We like our freedoms here in the UK and many other countries do too, but those freedoms only exist because someone - at some point in the past - exercised a democratic right to vote and made a change.
In twenty-two countries around the world, according to the CIA WorldFactBook that have compulsory voting. That is twenty-two countries were you will get into trouble for not voting in an election. Of those twenty-two, only eleven actually enforce compulsory voting. One of the countries to do so is Australia. You can get an £11 fine for failing to vote; voter turnout is high, between 94-95% in each election.
But many here would balk at the idea of the government forcing them to do anything, let alone vote. They would be just as likely to use their vote and vote out the party that made voting compulsory! Yet you cannot get away from the idea that by leaving it up to citizens to decide whether or not to vote the system leaves itself open to lower voter turnout due to apathy. And voter apathy is a real problem with few thinking that voting is a civic duty.
There is the argument that forcing people to vote doesn't necessarily mean that voters were more interest in voting so much as interested in not paying a fine. Perhaps the DNVers (did not vote) would just spoil their ballot papers so that they couldn't be counted.
What do you think?
In twenty-two countries around the world, according to the CIA WorldFactBook that have compulsory voting. That is twenty-two countries were you will get into trouble for not voting in an election. Of those twenty-two, only eleven actually enforce compulsory voting. One of the countries to do so is Australia. You can get an £11 fine for failing to vote; voter turnout is high, between 94-95% in each election.
But many here would balk at the idea of the government forcing them to do anything, let alone vote. They would be just as likely to use their vote and vote out the party that made voting compulsory! Yet you cannot get away from the idea that by leaving it up to citizens to decide whether or not to vote the system leaves itself open to lower voter turnout due to apathy. And voter apathy is a real problem with few thinking that voting is a civic duty.
There is the argument that forcing people to vote doesn't necessarily mean that voters were more interest in voting so much as interested in not paying a fine. Perhaps the DNVers (did not vote) would just spoil their ballot papers so that they couldn't be counted.
What do you think?
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