I feel like this would be a slippery slope towards making it illegal for people to choose to not vote.
thatâs already how it is in australia
Thatâs just so fucked up. :( Do certain medical conditions exempt you?
?????? why is it be fucked up to have compulsory voting? thatâs the way it is in most democratic countries? itâs a part of being a citizen, like paying taxes and obeying speed limits? the fine for not voting is only like $50 and because of the compulsory voting law, our country bends over backwards to make it accessible: itâs always on a weekend, lasts most of the day, and is set up at schools and community centers so thereâs one within easy reach of almost everybody. you can also mail your ballot or vote early if youâll be out of the country on the day. like, ITâS EASY TO VOTE, and the penalty isnât even that ridiculous. i donât understand why the usa doesnât have this, except obviously it would make it harder to literally stop minorities from voting.
I think we Americans tend to forget that a lot of other countries donât actively work to make it harder to vote.
Adding to this here, in Australia you donât have to vote. Or, more precisely, thereâs no way they can tell if you ruined your ballot. You have to turn up, get your name marked off, but you can put a line through the ballot if you donât think any of the candidates are worth voting for. Or do this:Â
Or this:Â
Or this:Â
You have get your name crossed off (if you donât want to wear the fine), but you donât have to make your vote counted if youâre opposed to it.Â
And it is so, so easy to vote. Stuck at work or on holidays? Thatâs fine. Do a postal vote. Â Stuck in hospital? Thatâs fine. Theyâll go to you. Stuck in an old peopleâs home and canât get around? Again, theyâll go to you. Itâs amazing to me that itâs so hard for so many Americans to actually vote. If you make it compulsory, than at least the government is obligated to provide you with the means to vote.Â
And look, I get it. Sometimes I donât want to vote either. But I suck it up, I walk three minutes down the street, and I hope that this year theyâre selling lamingtons again. Oh, and I buy a democracy sausage, which, even if all the candidates suck, makes the effort of turning up pretty worthwhile.Â
ALSO, you can see even on the fucked up ballots that you NUMBER CANDIDATES IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE. Thereâs no need to calculate whether I would be throwing away my vote on the candidate that I most agree with if theyâre not from a major party. I can say, I want that independent person to get in, but if not them, give me Big Party A, and if not them, that minor party person is still better that Big Party B, and Iâm not giving any preference to the Lunatic Fringe Party.
Our system certainly has some issues still, but I can show up to somewhere nearby, line up for a few minutes (if at all), vote exactly in line with my values (on paper, leaving a paper trail that can be recounted), and then buy a sausage and some home made cupcakes on my way out.
A countryâs voting system matters a hell of a lot and every citizen deserves one that makes it easy to vote and results in a government that is representational and accountable.
And by the way, one time I had a bad asthma flare-up on Election Day and didnât make it to my polling station. I got my fine in the mail, I filled out the form explaining why I couldnât vote, no more fine. I would rather have, you know, expressed my preference for who should run my country, but they were cool with the fact that I couldnât do it that day.
âoh no, what if people actually have to participate in picking the government officials who will impact their livesâ jesus christ
Itâs honestly all kinds of disturbing that america has raised people to think that it should be difficult to vote when literally the only way democracy functions is if everyone gets their voice heard when it comes to picking their government
Itâs disturbing but not surprising given that this is a country where a man who lost by over three million votes still got elected âPresidentâ and got to create an illegitimate government because of a nonsensical system that literally no normal country uses during its elections
âIf you make it compulsory, than at least the government is obligated to provide you with the means to vote.â I wholeheartedly agree that we need to make voting much more accessible in the US. Letâs be real though, if it was compulsory to vote here, the government wouldnât actually make it any easier to vote. It would just become another tool to oppress poor people and non-white people. Iâm imagining a judge telling a black 22-year-old who works three jobs and canât get time off on election day, âThis is the third year in a row you didnât vote. If it happens again next year, Iâll have no choice but to lock you up for two months.â
























