the Australian election is in 5 days time. However, we in canberra get no repreive from election campaign comercials as our local elections are one week after that.

However, the thing that makes our elections good is that voting is compulsory here. (actualy, just putting in the voting slip is, but most people dont see much point in not filling out a slip as it would just have waisted their time)

I have registered to vote already, but as I don't turn 18 for another two months, I don't get to vote this time round.

To make this legal,

How do you think The U.S would react if compulsory voting was introduced there (as well as making registering compulsory).

People would ***** and moan about it violating their civil rights

Compulsory voting is wrong - choosing not to vote can be a conscious decision

then why do hardly any Australians ***** about it?

answer that mister sine.

Its a foolish idea. It presumes that by forcing the person to vote they actually know what they want to vote for (Then again they may prefer the ignorant vote, it seems to help some politicians). If voting is made compulsory, then ignorance would reign the elections.

That is not to say that ignorant people don't have the right to vote. By all means, the ignorant and wise are welcome to vote in America. But, ignorance usually goes hand in hand with laziness. I'd much prefer an informed person to vote for something that I disagreed with than an ignorant person marking a ballot because they have to.

Again I say, look at Australia. when people have to vote, they tend to look into things. Also, this means that we don't get peole *****ing about election results when they didn't bother to vote. Remember, some people that don't vote are perfectly knowleged but just cant be bothered to take an hour out of their day to vote.

If there was an Anti-vote system, I don't think anyone would mind having to vote.

With the Anti-vote system, you can either elect to boost your chosen candidate's number of votes by one, or you can choose to subtract a vote from their number of votes. This would help smooth out those situations where you hate one guy and feel compelled to vote for the other guy, simply because it means that the hated one does not get elected.

Compulsory voting works for Australia, but we're just more laid back than many countries and don't see it as an infringements of our rights. It's just not for every country.

Just because it works for your country doesn't necessarily mean it'll work for another country.

you do know that you can vote for, god forbid, a third party candidate. if you think your vote wont matter, then vote for someone that you like even if you think they will never get into power.

that is something I hate about some americans, they would be all anarchanistic if their right to vote was taken away even if they had never voted in their life.

Tell me, why is it that lots of americans think their vote wont count? That sort of thinking is the same as saying "I am just one person, what can i do?"

[worldvision]you can do plenty.[/worldvision]

... I like the implication there - if Australia does it, it can't possibly be wrong! I wish it were acceptable to call people retarded on these forums.

no, the implication was,

if australia does it, why can't america do it?

Actualy, I thought that question was very explicit

... Stop talking.

This is going to be a shocker, so make sure you are sitting down, have your seat belt on and have a first aid kit ready:

Maybe, just maybe the US doesn't want to.

Is that so difficult for you to undertand?

Less than half of Americans vote. Forcing the other half to vote would only bring a pool of ignorant people into politics, voting for people they aren't informed about. Nothing good can come of that.

Conversely, how can you call your system of government a democracy if only half of the society is voting?

Alpha...

I agree. This is probably much less of an issue in a country with a bunch of powerful parties, but in the US, your choices are extremely limited. What if you really hate both guys and you don't want to vote for either as a statement?

Then you drop in a blank vote. Or vote for Superman or some such. Doing so is not illegal, they don't watch who you vote for.

We don't have compulsory voting in Finland, though.

It's compulsory to register to vote and to turn up and be ticked off the voting role on election day, it is not compulsory to vote. You can draw a picture of John Howard bending over and taking George Bush like a man and drop it in the ballot box if you want.

Voting for a third pary is not entirely useless over here. Thier chance of getting a seat in the House of Representatives is extremely slim (although a few always do, usually in rural seats), but they can get a seat in the Senate. Senate seats are distributed by proportianal representation as elected directly (no electoral college bull****) by the entire Australian population. To put it simply, if 5% of Australians vote for the Greens, then the Greens will get 5% of the Senate seats. And the Senate is just as powerful as the House of Reps, as bills must pass through both.

sure spork, i completly understand what your trying to say.


i am registered to vote, but i will not vote. to vote would show my support for a canadate, and i dont support either canadate at this particular juncture.

You can just not register to vote, I'm not entirely sure how that works, but my mate's done it. There is a fine waiting for him if ever he does sign up, but nobody comes knocking on his door and such.

I prefer compulsory voting. I care about who wins or not, but if we had non-compulsory voting, chances are I wouldn't be bothered turning up.

That and the way I see it, you have so many crazy fanatics who support one side or the other, that I'd hate to see an election determined solely by the people who really really care.

I think compulsory voting might be a bit too much for the USA, but I would support a movement for compulsory registration. After all, when we guys turn 18, we still have to register with selective service. If we go into college, there's a whole S***load of things you have to register for. Whether you turn up to vote or not should still be left to the people, though I would very much like to see turnouts of 75%+. I could insert a few partisan comments here to explain my opinion, but I don't feel like starting a flamewar today.

...No, wait, I'll insert a partisan comment here(:D): Bush is way out to the right, but that's okay... Kerry's nowehere to be seen by the center either; there's just a lot of dust arround here. I still think Jim Lehir won the presidential debate, as both candidates were taking to his style of beign calm and reserved, and not making terribly biting comments... I would've likes to see at least some arm-wrestling!

The US is hardly a true democracy

How can you call a system of government where people are forced to vote a democracy? Sounds like a dictatorship to me. To allow people their choice whether or not to vote is the most democratic notion possible when it comes to voting.

I kind of like compulsory voting. You can still choose not to vote by drawing dirty pictures and spoiling your ballot. And Freelancer, I see it from the opposite side: maybe if people were forced to vote, a few of the ignorant ones would start following the issues.

I must agree here. I would also like to mention the poosibility of write-in candidates; For this election, you could vote for Vermin Supreme, who is in favor of mandatory tooth-brushing laws.

Exactly. It's funny that we often call ourselves democratic. Representative democracy maybe ...

Compulsory voting just seems so wrong to me on so many levels. Most of the reasons I believe so have already been stated in this thread.

yeah, we're kind of a republic democracy or something.( forgot his government definitions.)

A Represtive Republic is what I seem to remember from AP government 5 years ago

again I say, it would also bring the well informed people that cant be bothered to vote and the people with the "my vote wont make a difference, so why should I bother" people.

(sorry about the late post, I haven't logged on in a while)

But no matter what our vote -doesn't- make a difference. Really. Either way, it's a bad idea to force upon a people who have been able to choose for over 200 years.

freelancer, look up macarthy.

he also said that things that are different were evil.

How is it a dictatorship when people that own a pub are able to run in an election.

our only problem is not the compulsory voting, but the preference issue.

I cant explain it offhand, so just go to an australian news website like http://www.abc.com.au and look for the issue about family first organizing an automatic preferance with the major parties.

read a non american history book. the first of your presidents did not believe that democrasy worked.

and also, the entire u.s has only been able to vote for just under a century (see women's right to vote)

Stop talking. Just stop. They DID believe it worked, just not in its purest form. But yeah, you don't have talking rights any longer.

The US isn't a democracy, genious